A Small Girl in a Small Town
by Thinker
Summary: Amanda, a 10-year old geeky child prodigy dreams of being a Digidestined. But when hostile digimon begin to appear in her tiny Canadian town, she has to rely on her own gadgets and a reluctant Penguinmon to save it. Set between seasons 1 and 2, this is a cute and heartwarming tale about coming of age as a misfit in a small town community.
1. Unforeseen Consequences

_(Author's Note: This story is centered around an Original Character I created for my longer story "Ancient Enemy." Since I've recently returned to updating it, I thought I would commemorate the occasion by giving her a backstory. You don't need to have read "Ancient Enemy" at all to enjoy this story, though, and in fact it might be more fun to read this first. If you're worried about the other Digidestined not being in this, rest assured they will be making some appearances. Enjoy!)  
_

* * *

**A Small Girl in a Small Town**

**Part 1**

"**Unforeseen Consequences"**

* * *

Nestled among vast forests of pine, along a shallow river, and split by railroad tracks there is a small town in Ontario, Canada. On a hot August night in 1999, the citizens of this town stared up at the sky with a mixture of awe and horror as it was crisscrossed with images of another world, the Digital World, even as they heard tell of thousands of strange creatures called "digimon" invading their cities. Though at the time some loudly panicked and declared it to be the very end of the world, after the original eight Digidestined defeated Apocalymon, the threat was over and the world returned to normal.

In the coming months, information about the strange encounter with that alien world began to trickle through. For a time, the eight Digidestined became somewhat famous celebrities, but with the knowledge of the existence of digimon and the Digital World came the revelation that the door between the two became closed, quite possibly forever. In time, the adults of the world tried to more or less bury the idea, to move past it, and after almost a year, the Digital World was already becoming ancient history.

But that was not the case for some. For some, the thrill and excitement of a whole new world and new lifeforms was simply too much to let go. That hot August night, a little girl stared up at the sky with an overflowing fascination the likes of which she'd never felt before. Amazed and shaken to her core, she would never be able to look at her own life the same way again, even as her little town preferred to go back to sleep and forget the day the sky tore itself apart.

She'd already made herself a promise upon seeing the Digidestined in the sky. She was a mere nine years old at that time and she spoke the promise breathlessly to herself, but it was as serious a declaration as any man or woman could make, and neither the concerns of her parents and teachers nor the scorn and teasing of her classmates could shake her resolve. Her vow was merely this: "Some day, I'm going to be a Digidestined too..."

This is that little girl's story.

* * *

**June, 2000:**

Atop a mountain of defeated enemies, she stood tall and proud, her hair waving in the wind, her hands on her hips. A pair of goggles perched fashionably on her head as she looked out upon her peers, her expression one of supreme confidence and satisfaction. At the foot of this mountain were the eight Digidestined from Japan, staring up at her in adoration.

"She's amazing!" said Matt.

"And very fashionable," Mimi added with a giggle.

"A true genius!" Izzy agreed.

Tai put his hand on the back of his head, feeling a bit like he'd been put in his place. "I hate to say it, but she might be the best Digidestined ever!"

She tossed her head back and laughed. "No, no, there's no need to thank me," she said, running a hand through her hair deliberately, clearly indicating there _was_ a need to thank her. "After all, even though I figured out their plan, these evil digimon were really beaten by… my partner!"

She turned and all of them gawked at the gigantic, majestic beast that slowly began to arise behind her. She smiled as it revealed itself, though partially hidden in shadow. It was strong and magnificent. It was graceful and noble. It was the best digimon a human could ask for. It was her partner.

"Say hello to my partner, everyone. Say hello to—"

_"Amanda Fabienne Giroux!"_ a shrill voiced screeched. _"Get out of bed this instant!"_

Her eyes went wide at the sound of her name and she threw back the covers on her bed in frustration.

"Ugh… and that was a good dream. Maybe the best one yet," she grumbled.

"Dreamin' about _boooys_ again, Sis?"

She looked over to her door, where her little brother stood, a sneer on his six-year-old face.

"Get out of my room, Philipe!" she shouted. "And I was not having a dream about a boy!"

"Then why is there drool on your pillow?"

She looked down and felt her cheeks burn when she saw the small wet spot on the pillow. After wiping her mouth with her wrist, she grabbed the pillow and lobbed it at her brother, who dodged it and ran down the hall.

"Mama, Mama, Amanda tried to hit me with her drool-pillow!"

"Good, that means she's awake," her mother replied.

She slammed her door shut and went to her dresser to retrieve her black-rimmed glasses. She put them on and looked at herself in the mirror, heaving a sigh as she did so.

"Ugh," she said. In her dreams, she was tall, beautiful, and perhaps a bit fuller figured, with no need for glasses and a perfect complexion. But the girl in the mirror wasn't in the same league. The girl in the mirror was short, plain, with pale skin (and, she noted, the makings of a pimple coming up just below her hairline), and straight, stringy black hair that was now seriously suffering from a case of bed-head.

"Ugh," she said again. "Reality sucks."

She looked around her room as she tried to smooth out her hair. This room was defined by two things: anime and computer parts. In the first case, there were posters, wall-scrolls, and figurines with large-eyed Japanese figures in dramatic poses. There was "Ranma ½" and "Gundam" and "Outlaw Star," not to mention "Card Captor Sakura" and of course "Sailor Moon." As for the computer parts, there was a small desk with a squeaky swivel chair, and atop that desk was a computer with a fan that hummed softly. (The desktop wallpaper, of course, was anime-themed ["Gundam Wing," if you were wondering].) But there were also small parts, fans and PCI cards and processors and at least one power supply, not to mention wires and diodes and other things she'd picked up cheaply from a small store in town solely to tinker with them. Atop her dresser, where some girls kept their jewelry or toys, she kept a small toolbox, perfect for adjustments and configurations on machines of all sizes.

Anime and computers… both of these were of great importance to the young lady who called this room her own.

This young lady was Amanda Fabienne Giroux, age 10; otaku and electronics genius. Born to a French-Canadian father from Quebec and a mother from British Columbia, she lived with them and her younger brother in the town of Roxanne. The town was located in the province of Ontario, just north of the New York border and situated between the cities of Toronto and Ottawa. Few had ever heard of Roxanne, unsurprisingly; the town had a population of 5000 (counting the farms and surrounding areas), and it was conveniently located in such a way that you would never have to drive through it to get where you were going.

As she showered, ate breakfast, and brushed her teeth, she lamented her average, boring life and her average, boring body.

But little did she know that things were about to take a turn for the interesting. This girl, who idolized the Digidestined and was obsessed with digimon since they appeared around the world and in the sky a year earlier, was about to have another encounter.

This was the day that gave rise to hundreds or even thousands of new Digidestined.

This was the day Diaboromon appeared.

* * *

"Well class," Ms. Foley was saying, "I'm sure you're all excited about the upcoming summer vacation, but there is still work to be done."

There was a collective murmur through the class as the students babbled about their mixture of excitement and unease. The excitement at the month-long summer break (for this school ran in a cycle of 3 months of school followed by 1 month of vacation) was tempered by the unease of the "work to be done."

Amanda didn't react. She sat back at her desk, casually sketching digimon (badly, for her talent with computers was not matched in the arts) in the margins of her notes. She did react, however, when she felt something small and wet smack her in the back of the head. Reaching back, she made a face as she retrieved the spitball that had stuck to her hair. She turned her head and was met by a group of mischievously grinning faces as one of the boys held up a straw and a handful of more wads of paper.

"Grow up, you brats!" she hissed. "Or at least try to pretend it wasn't you!"

"Amanda, are you listening?" Ms. Foley asked.

"Huh?"

"We're talking about progress reports, could you please pay attention?"

"But I was just talking to—"

_"Later."_

Amanda crossed her arms as she sulked in her seat, her cheeks burning for the second time that morning amid the snickers of her classmates and whispers of "Dork," "Geek," and the like.

She waited as Ms. Foley passed out classroom progress reports. Though not official report cards, they might as well have been, since there wasn't much left to be graded in the last week of school anyway. The major unknown was the small box at the bottom of the report marked "Parent/Teacher Conference Requested." If you saw a checkmark in that box, you knew you had it coming.

Spinning a pen in her hands while she waited for her name, Amanda knew she had nothing to worry about. She wasn't a discipline problem and her grades were good. Who, after all, could complain about straight A's?

"Amanda Giroux," Ms. Foley called. Amanda went up the aisle, dodging the feet of her classmates as they stuck out in an attempt to trip her. She retrieved the report and turned to walk back, eyeing the grades without much interest, checking them off mentally: _A, A, A, A-, A, Parent/Teacher Conference RequesteWHAAAAT?!_

"Hey!" she yelled, startling the whole class. "What is this?!"

Ms. Foley cringed. "Amanda, uh, maybe you'd like to—"

"Oh no, no no no, what is this? A conference? What for?"

"Er, Amanda, this might not be the time to—"

"What did I do? You know I didn't do anything wrong, my grades are fine, so why—"

_"Amanda!"_ Ms. Foley said, slamming her hands down on the desk. "Per_haps,"_ she said, emphasizing the words carefully, syllable by syllable through gritted teeth, "you would _like_ to dis_cuss_ this _after class?"_

Amanda turned and finally saw the rest of her class eagerly lapping up the outburst.

"Er, sure, fine," she muttered, making her way back to her seat, once again dodging more feet in the aisle.

* * *

"Why so glum, chum?" Yvonne asked.

Amanda sighed. "I don't want to be asked that by a goth," she said, offering a weak grin.

"Hey, actions speak louder than words, and my clothes aren't half as loud as the look on your face."

Amanda smiled in spite of her mood. It was lunchtime, and Yvonne, her one real friend at school, was waiting for her at their usual table in the cafeteria. Yvonne was 11, and her black clothes and makeup made her quite a sight around the school. Nobody was sure if she was made fun of because of how she dressed, or if she dressed that way because she was made fun of, but the bottom line was that she and Amanda were the bottom rung on the social ladder for their grades.

"So, how's our resident Geek Chique today?" Yvonne asked, a spoonful of applesauce in her hand.

"Ugh, don't even ask."

"Okay," Yvonne said immediately, continuing her lunch.

"Well, since you _did_ ask," Amanda said hastily, "Ms. Foley wants a conference with my parents."

Yvonne said nothing, but chewed a french fry lazily. She swallowed and said, "Go on."

"I have no idea why. I've got A's in everything, even gym—"

"_Mon Dieu, _it's a miracle!"

"—and I haven't been in trouble for anything. She wouldn't say, she just wanted to talk to my parents. In fact, she told me she already called them. She's seeing them _tonight._"

"Right, they're doing conferences through the next week. Fun times. Well, sucks to be you."

"You're a lot of help, Yvonne," Amanda said gloomily.

"Ooh, well _here's_ something that might lift your spirits," Yvonne said. "Look who's coming."

The two of them saw a boy from Yvonne's grade named Leon. He was tall for his age, tan, with shining blonde hair and blue eyes. In a few years, he'd look like a Californian surfer. His family had a farm just outside of town and he was well known for his easy-going attitude and skills on the school's hockey team in the winter season. He was walking to the far side of the cafeteria, but to get there he was walking right by their table. As their gazes followed him, he slowed and – neither of them could believe it – moved for their table.

"Hey," he said, coming over to them.

"H-hey," Amanda muttered, looking down.

"What's new, Leon?" Yvonne asked. She looked far calmer than Amanda, but they both knew her heart was fluttering just as much.

"The usual. Say, Amanda—"

"YES?"

"I, uh," he stammered, startled at the suddenness of her answer. "I, uh, heard you've been organizing some _Counter-Strike_ after school in the computer lab."

"OH… YES, I HA-" she choked back her words and managed to calm herself slightly. "Y-yes, I have been. Why?"

"Think maybe I could come play sometime?"

Amanda's eyes went wide. "Uhhhhh—"

"Oh, if not, then—"

"No!" she said. "I mean, yes! Of course you can come play with me! Us! I mean us! We've got a game going today!"

"Oh," he said, looking disappointed. "I can't today. My dad wants me to help out on _the farm,"_ he said, rolling his eyes. "Later this week?"

"Well, w-we usually only play once a week, so, how about next week?"

Leon looked confused. "But… there's no school next week."

Amanda slapped her forehead. She forgot about summer vacation. "Right, right. How about next month? Are you free next month?"

"I… don't know, it's… I mean, it's a month from now."

"R-right, well, I uh… uh…" she felt her cheeks redden. _Stop blushing, you idiot!_ she told herself.

"How about a raincheck, Leon?" Yvonne said, intervening in this little disaster.

Leon nodded, his smile returning. "Sounds good." With a friendly wave of his hand, he went on his way to join his friends.

"Ohhh myyy gawwwd," Amanda moaned, slamming her face down on the table once Leon was out of earshot. "What the heck is wrong with me? _'Are you free next month?'_ I'm an idiot."

"A genius idiot," Yvonne said wryly. "You are quite the paradox, Amanda Giroux."

"That's just a nice way," said a new voice, "of saying _'Dork.'"_

They looked up and saw a girl named Tara approaching their table, three girls in her _entourage_ right behind her. With sly, knowing grins, they came up to them, all wearing clothes more fashionable than any girls their age had a right to wear.

"Oh, good," Amanda muttered dryly. "I was waiting for the cherry on this crap sundae."

"So, listen," Tara said, "my friends and I make four people, but there are no round tables left. If we go to the long tables to sit, we might have to split up, and I'm not sitting next to one of the losers."

Amanda and Yvonne stared up at her. "So," Yvonne began, "does that make you a self-hating lo—"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, this isn't a conversation, Count Dracula," Tara said, holding up a hand (a bit close to Yvonne's face). "You and four-eyes here can just be polite and let us have this table."

"Huh?" Amanda said. "But… but we were here first!"

Tara looked down at her, a new iciness in her eyes. Presently the other girls in her group surrounded their table. Some others in the cafeteria began to notice them gathering.

"Listen carefully," Tara said. "You can move now, or we can make this a scene."

Yvonne scowled at her. "If you think you and your conformist—"

"Hey, look at this, everyone!" Tara yelled, getting attention from the surrounding tables. "Looks like the vampire and her minion don't want us to break up their party!"

There was a chorus of chuckles and Yvonne sighed as she stood up, picking up her food tray. Amanda followed suit, realizing it might be best to surrender. But apparently Yvonne had ideas of her own.

"Funny," she said, also loud enough to be heard by the surrounding crowd. "You call me a vampire because of how I dress. But look at what _you're_ wearing."

"Me?" Tara demanded. "I'm wearing—"

"LUNCH!" Yvonne shouted, flinging her tray of food at Tara before wildly laughing and slapping the others' trays out of their hands. She drew cheers and laughter as she grabbed wads of food and rubbed it in the hair of her shrieking prey. All the commotion finally got the attention of the cafeteria staff who finally stepped outside to intervene. They pulled the crazed goth girl off of Tara and her food-splattered cronies. As Yvonne was dragged off, laughing all the way, she caught sight of Leon stifling a laugh and offering her a thumbs-up. Yvonne smiled in return as she let herself be carried off.

Amanda had already retreated amid the struggle, wondering if anyone had noticed her toss her food tray onto Tara as well. She thought not, but it was worth it, even if she would go hungry that afternoon.

* * *

"Gentlemen!" she shouted. "Welcome to the last _Counter-Strike_ LAN party of the semester!"

There was a small round of applause. She was in the computer lab with a dozen other players gathered around a small island of computers in the center of the room. On each side were the designated teams. The players were all fellow elementary school students, mostly other geeks or just avid gamers, who had joined her covert group. The installation of software on school computers was forbidden, and a violent first-person shooter mod was likely to get unwanted attention. To keep from being noticed, they wore headphones at all times to hide the sound of gunfire and had a rule of keeping their voices down. They also usually employed a lookout. She was the only girl there and they knew it was all her idea.

She'd originally come up with the plan as a way to win friends and perhaps expand her social circle. Unfortunately, elementary school being what it was, she really only got a bunch of boys to play and outside of this little gathering, they never really spoke to each other. Much like teammates or coworkers who get along, but don't hang out afterwards, the _Counter-Strike _group existed in this tiny lab and nowhere else. It also didn't help that all of the boys in the group were just a little resentful of the fact that Amanda regularly kicked their butts and couldn't resist gloating about it. For now, however, there was an even bigger annoyance than Amanda's showboating to deal with...

"Why can't I play?" Philipe asked.

She looked over to her younger brother with disdain. "Because we need a lookout and today I'm asking you to do it. I let you borrow my Game Boy, so all you have to do is sit outside and play and knock when you see a teacher coming."

"But why meee?" he whined.

"Look," she sighed, "last time I let you play with us, you cried every time you died and threw a fit when your team lost. If you want to be treated like a big boy, then first you need to do us a favor and act like it."

"Let me play!" he demanded petulantly. "Besides, girls aren't supposed to play gun games, that's boy stuff!"

She ignored that. "The other guys want to play and it's the last game of the semester. If you do a good job today, I'll let you play next semester, Philipe."

"You suck, Sis," he said, reluctantly taking the Game Boy and walking outside to assume his post as lookout.

"Now, where were we?" she said.

* * *

_"Counter-Terrorists Win,"_ the game declared as Amanda's team exchanged grins and high-fives. She smugly noted the impressive kill count next to her avatar's name: "BestDDAmanda."

After ten minutes, her team had already won a Hostage map and a VIP-protecting map, she had been on the Counter-Terrorist side both times, and the next map was loading. It was a Bomb map, and her team of Counter-Terrorists had to either prevent a bomb from being placed or defuse it if it was placed.

"Hey, Amanda," said one of the boys on the other side, "think you can win without camping this time?"

She stuck her tongue out at him. "Just for that," she said, "you die first."

The map loaded, and this time the other team was better organized. She had a bomb defusal kit ready, and it was a good thing, because her teammates began to die left and right.

"Look out, Amanda, they're—"

"Don't give it away," Amanda said, holding her hand up. "I'd rather lose than cheat, and dead people don't talk to their teammates."

_"The bomb has been planted,"_ the game announced.

"Oh crap crap crap…"

It was down to her and one teammate—

_BANG_

"Dang it!"

-it was down to just her versus three on the other team, and the bomb was beeping ever faster, indicating it was about to explode.

"Okay, guys, we got this," one of the Terrorists said. "We just have to—"

_BANG_

"—OH COME ON!"

"Relax, we've still got two of us left."

"Dude, grenade, move!"

"Oh, sh—"

_**BOOM**_

"I can't believe she killed us all, this is so stupid!"

"Dude, calm down," his teammate said. "She still has to defuse the bomb."

Both teams watched their screens as Amanda frantically searched the area for the bomb. She found it and her team held their breath as she began to defuse it, the beeping of the bomb becoming a rapid staccato.

"She's going to do it. She— oh crap!"

"Relax," she said confidently, watching the defuser progress bar go forward. "I've got this."

"No, Amanda, I—"

A hand seized hers just as the defuser bar was nearly at the end, interrupting the process. She looked up into the face of a _very_ angry Ms. Foley.

"What?" she cried. "But how did you know?"

Then she looked behind Ms. Foley and saw Philipe with an evil grin on his face. He reached over and yanked the headphones out of their jack just as the beeping finally came to an end. An earth-shattering **KABOOM** reverberated throughout the room as the bomb exploded.

_"Terrorists Win,"_ the game announced.

* * *

"Young lady," her father was saying, "I am not going to argue with you."

"Look, it is not a big deal, Papa," Amanda was saying. Her busting at the hands of her little brother was added to the things to discuss with Ms. Foley that evening, and now she was at home, unofficially grounded until her parents returned from the conference.

"Your mother and I will discuss this with you when we get home," he said in his French-tinged English. His tone indicated that he was neither angry nor disappointed, but he still managed to sound intimidating. He was putting on a tie as he prepared to go with his wife to see Ms. Foley at the school. "I want to know the whole story. After we've heard from Ms. Foley, we will hear your side of the story."

"And THEN you'll punish me anyway," she said with a sigh.

"I must call the country of Drama," her father said with a grin, "and tell them we have their Queen."

"Har har," she said.

"I think I am more than fair with you, so you will give me a chance to be fair. Your mother and I will punish you IF you deserve it."

He walked out of the room and left Amanda to return to hers. She noted Philipe trailing her.

"You got bu~uste~ed!" he said in his most obnoxious, sing-songy way.

"Yes. Yes I did," she said, growling at him as she turned on her computer. "Thanks for that."

"Next time maybe you'll let me play."

She stared at him. "You are so stupid."

"I'm not stupid!"

"You are. There won't _be_ a next time, thanks to you, ya little brat. And if, by some miracle, there _is_ a next time, why the heck would we invite you? You just failed the one test I put in front of you. I said you could play next time if you just warned us a teacher was coming and instead you deliberately FOUND a teacher to tattle on us. No more _Counter-Strike_ for us, so no more for you."

"But… but… no fair!"

"Yeah, way to shoot yourself in the foot, little brother," she said, feeling slightly better as he stomped away. "Now, where was I in my fanfic? Ah, yes, Sanosuke had just confessed his love to Kenshin…"

* * *

While Amanda was indulging herself in fantasies of hot, passionate boy love, there were two other events of interest taking place. The first one was going on half a world away, in Japan.

"Who are those strange people?" Tai asked Matt through the computer as he and Izzy stared into it.

"They're not strange," Matt said, as he and TK stood in the barbershop in their grandmother's small town in the countryside. "They're my friends!" He leaned in, adding in a whisper, "At least they are as long as they let us use their computer."

The four of them were up against a strange digimon named Infermon that had invaded the internet, rapidly eating data to evolve, throwing computer systems into chaos around the country and, indeed, the world.

"Okay, we'll tell Gennai to send in Gabumon and Patamon," Izzy said.

"All right," Tai said, pulling his goggles down. "Let's take this virus digimon down!"

* * *

The other event of interest was not half a world away, but an entire world away. In the frozen glacial area in the north of the Digital World, not far from the sea, a lone Penguinmon was staring down a pack of three Gizamon.

"Look, I'm sorry, but I wasn't able to catch enough for all of you today," Penguinmon said.

"That's too bad, but the deal's the same," one Gizamon said.

"Yeah, either you get us all the fish we ask for," said another, "or we beat the tar out of you."

The third stepped forward. "It's looking like it'll be the latter today. _Spiral Saw!"_

The Gizamon rolled into a ball and came at Penguinmon like a flying buzzsaw.

_"Super Slap!"_ he attacked, using his flipper to knock the Gizamon away, only to be struck by his two friends immediately afterwards, receiving a few nasty cuts in the process.

"Three on one are horrible odds, Penguinmon," one taunted. "You might as well just roll over and let us give you a quick beating. We promise we won't hurt you too bad. After all, you still have to catch us some fish for tomorrow!"

As they laughed, Penguinmon stood up wearily. "You're right," he said. "That'd be the smart thing to do."

Suddenly he turned tail and flopped on his belly, rocketing away on the slippery ice like a motorized sled. "But I'm feeling stupid today!" he yelled back, laughing as he went.

"After him!" one of the Gizamon shouted, as all three rapidly gave chase.

* * *

"'…And as Kenshin stared deeply into Sanosuke's eyes,'" she said, reading her own words as she went, "'the young warrior leaned in and whispered—"

The computer suddenly went _BEEP!_ and the entire screen went blank.

"—F*CK!"

"I'm telling, Sis!" Philipe yelled from his room.

The story was completely gone, but she stared at her computer screen intently. Several windows were open and her eyes went wide at what she was witnessing.

"Digimon…" she breathed. "The Digidestined are…"

There they were. The heroes who had appeared in the sky fighting Apocalymon, the ones whose heroics had saved the world and captivated her imagination, the ones who occupied her dreams were _right_ _there_ on the screen. Each human and digimon appeared in a separate window and it was obvious that some sort of battle was taking place.

_"Patamon, you better digivolve too!"_ shouted TK.

"No way, I get to see him become Angemon?" she cried.

_"Patamon digivolve to…"_

_"Oh no you don't,"_ Infermon said, launching himself upwards. _"Infermon digivolve to… Diaboromon!"_

"Look out!" Amanda screamed. But he couldn't hear her, so she could only look on as Diaboromon seized Patamon with one hand and then Tentomon with another. She watched, her heart thundering, as WarGreymon and MetalGarurumon went after Diaboromon. But despite their best efforts, they were taking a thrashing. Then, out of nowhere, Tai Kamiya's window went blank and WarGreymon froze up completely, leaving him at Diaboromon's mercy.

As she watched this, a quick check on various chat rooms allowed her to catch up on what was happening. "He's eating data? Hey, that jerk Diaboromon ate my fanfic!" she exclaimed, her blood boiling. "And he's making a fool out of the Digidestined? Someone needs to teach that stupid virus a lesson!"

Then she got an idea. She looked around her cluttered room and remembered the various things she had stored on her own computer. If she moved fast, she could do something to help, but not with her computer by itself. Before she left, she wrote off a quick email:

_"Go, Digidestined! You can beat that evil Diaboromon, and I think I can help!_

_ "Peace and Love, Amanda Giroux from Canada."_

As she gathered her things up, Philipe finally took notice of what she was doing.

"Where are you going, Sis?"

"None of your business, brat," she said. "Go to bed."

"I'm gonna come with you," he said.

"Ohhhh no you're not."

"If you don't take me with you, I'm gonna tell again."

Amanda froze and looked over to him. "Not this time." He backed away as she slowly approached him, her gaze burning. "You are _not_ screwing this one up."

* * *

"Sit down Mr. and Mrs. Giroux," Ms. Foley was saying.

"Come on, Helen," said Mrs. Giroux, "there's no need for titles. I see you all the time, we're practically neighbors."

"Well, I don't want to play favorites," she said. "Listen, just because we're old friends doesn't change the fact that I'm Amanda's teacher."

The three of them were seated in Amanda's classroom, Ms. Foley behind her desk as Mr. and Mrs. Giroux sat in a pair of chairs before her. The classroom was empty of students and the light outside was slowly getting darker as the insects of summer and various nocturnal wildlife of the pine forest began to stir.

"Of course," Mr. Giroux was saying. "So, let's just get to the heart of the matter. What is the problem with our daughter?"

"Well, she has several notable problems. Her social standing, her behavior, her friends," Ms. Foley began.

"And her grades?" Mr. Giroux said, interrupting her.

"What? Well, that's not really—"

"She showed us the report," Mr. Giroux said.

"Honey," Mrs. Giroux said, giving him a look.

"No, no, let's talk about her grades first," Mr. Giroux insisted.

Ms. Foley smiled. "Wesley, Anne… She's brilliant. You don't need me to tell you that."

Mr. Giroux folded his arms smugly while Mrs. Giroux offered a smile. Indeed Ms. Foley did not need to tell them that their daughter was brilliant. She was doing multiplication at age 3, readily able to read specs on cars in her father's issues of _Popular Mechanics_ by age 5, and was teaching herself about computer programming and repair by the age of 8 after endearing herself to the owner of the computer parts store downtown. This was also when she started causing great problems for her teachers as she passed up recess to work in the school computer lab to run her experiments, which finally caused her family to buy a computer for her to use at home. Neither of her parents had any demonstrable abilities above the average, but apparently the family genes had combined in just such a way to make Amanda naturally gifted. She understood things she was told or things she read immediately and more than a few people had commented on her being like a miniature adult when she was a toddler. Getting compliments from teachers was nothing new.

"She's the best student in the class as far as grades are concerned," Ms. Foley continued. "She struggles in gym and art, but she does her work. She had a few close calls in science and geography, but that's only because she's clearly a bit… well, bored. I'm pretty certain that she didn't even study for the last few tests and she still knew every answer. She was done in minutes."

"I knew it," Mr. Giroux said.

"Wesley, you promised," Mrs. Giroux said in warning.

"Yes, yes, of course, I'm sorry," he said.

Ms. Foley rubbed her eyes. Parents never liked hearing bad news about their kids, and it was pretty clear that Mr. Giroux took extra pride in his little girl. It was a lucky thing that Anne Giroux was keeping an open mind or this would be a complete uphill battle.

"Look, nobody's going to argue that she's not very _very_ intelligent. I don't like to throw words like 'genius' around, but she's pushing me in that direction. The things she knows, no 10-year-old should know. I mean, we all know about her work in the Science Fairs..."

The Roxanne Elementary School Science Fair was held every year for students in the 2nd through 6th grades. In the 2nd grade, Amanda had submitted a homemade remote-controlled car and won 2nd place. In the 3rd grade, she had designed a miniature robotic cat and mouse (made from a computer mouse) in a maze. The cat and mouse stored paths of the maze in their memory and could follow residual heat signatures left by the other as they tried to catch or evade their counterpart. That project won her First Prize. And finally, this previous year, Amanda had produced what she claimed was a real working digimon detector, capable of identifying if a digimon was present within 50 meters. Unfortunately, as there were no digimon present, there was no proof it did anything, and nobody present could follow her explanation well enough to tell if it was real or just her overactive imagination, so it received no award at all. She was genuinely crushed, as she figured it was a shoe-in, and the most original idea at the fair. Her parents and teachers took it as a sign that her obsession with digimon had crossed a line.

Mrs. Giroux nodded as she recounted all this. "She is… industrious, isn't she?"

Ms. Foley considered correcting that as _insidious_ after discovering her covert computer lab activity, but held her tongue. "She's very talented, yes, but as I was saying, she has several problems that are not related to her schoolwork."

Mr. Giroux opened his mouth but a nudge from his wife caused him to pause before saying, reluctantly, "Go on."

"She's a know-it-all, in basic terms. She has no patience for her other classmates and delights in showing how much smarter she is. She has NO friends except for that Yvonne girl, and honestly I don't think that she's a good influence."

"What's wrong with Yvonne?" Mrs. Giroux asked.

"She's very… dark," Ms. Foley said, finding it safest. "She doesn't appear to be on any drugs, but it's clear that she deliberately fights against anything she perceives as _conventional._ She just had a fight today with one of the other girls."

"Which one?" Mr. Giroux asked.

"That's not—"

"Which one?" he repeated.

Ms. Foley sighed. "Tara."

"Ahh," both Mr. and Mrs. Giroux intoned.

"Okay, I know Amanda doesn't like her, but Yvonne is teaching her to fight or confront a bully instead of just ignoring her."

"The last time Amanda ignored Tara," Mr. Giroux said, his face growing dark, "she was followed all the way home, called every name under the sun, and walked into the house in tears."

Ms. Foley nodded, sympathetic. "I'm very sorry about that, Wesley. It breaks my heart. Still, we can't encourage fighting. And among girls, it's just… well, you know what I mean."

"Not really," Mr. Giroux said.

"I do," Mrs. Giroux said. "But let's move on. What else concerns you?"

"Aside from her poor ability to socialize with her peers? She has such _strange_ hobbies."

Mr. Giroux leaned forward, challenging her, _daring_ her, to call his daughter "strange" again.

* * *

Little did Mr. and Mrs. Giroux know that their daughter was in the building at that very moment. Since the school was open for conferences, she managed to sneak inside and make her way to the computer lab once again. The room was dark and the door was locked, but, unbeknownst to the staff at Roxanne Elementary, she had a copy of the computer room key on hand. (As her mother said, she was "industrious.") She made her way inside and swiftly began connecting the various computers together, networking them all into one another and making, for all intents and purposes, a supercomputer. Not a particularly strong one, but good enough for what she was after.

She loaded some programs into her main console and logged onto the internet, quickly finding Diaboromon's path as he tunneled through the data. It had apparently left Tai, Matt, and the others behind as it progressed through the network, but she was ready for it.

"Let's see how you like this script, you big, fanfic-gobbling jerk!"

* * *

Diaboromon flew swiftly though the tunnel deep within the network, the colorful lights and flashing symbols passing by him as he moved toward his next target: the Pentagon.

Suddenly the door ahead of him slammed shut and a screen opened up. A young human girl's face appeared before him. _"Not so fast!"_ she cried.

"What in the world is this?" he asked, his demonic voice an electronic growl.

_"Uhm,"_ she said, momentarily intimidated. _"I... I am Amanda Fabienne Giroux, and I'm going to stop you!"_

A door nearby slid open and a black, spiraling entity appeared. It whirred and clanked and moved toward Diaboromon threateningly, looking a bit like a cross between a gyroscope, a snail, and the Tin Man from "The Wizard of Oz."

_"Wow, I didn't think it'd look like that. Oh well, meet my custom-made Virus-Buster! The Battousai-XXAFG program will—"_

Diaboromon swatted it out of his way, slamming it against the wall of the tube it was in. The panel on his chest glowed as he called out his attack, _"Web Wrecker!"_ and blasted the program into dust.

_"No!"_ she cried. _"You jerk, do you have any idea how hard I worked on that?" _Diaboromon glowered at the girl in the screen.

"Don't interfere, human," he snarled. "That was an impressive effort, but I don't have time to deal with you. Since you think you're somehow involved with this, I'll give you what you want. But just be prepared for… unforeseen consequences."

Back in the computer lab, Amanda backed away from Diaboromon's face, suddenly feeling very frightened. She wasn't sure what he meant, but suddenly all the lights in the computer lab and all the computer screens rapidly began to flash.

_"What?"_ she asked uncertainly. _"What's happening?..."_

* * *

Meanwhile, outside, all the streetlights, all the TVs, every electronic device in the entire city of Roxanne began to blink on and off before finally every single one shut down, plunging the city into total blackness and total silence, aside from the confused and angry shouts of its citizens.

A few of the more observant ones who looked outside swore they saw what looked like Aurora Borealis shimmering in the night sky overhead for a few minutes after the blackout.

* * *

"And that sums up my thoughts on the situation," Ms. Foley was saying a few moments prior.

"Now look," Mr. Giroux said, getting indignant, "I understand that Amanda is a bit different and her habits may not be typical for girls her age, but that says to me that she should be treated like a mature person, not a child. We shouldn't punish her for being different."

"Wesley," Ms. Foley sighed, "I really don't recommend moving her up a grade. That would make her even more of an outcast. Besides, her problem is that she _lacks_ maturity, she can't handle a higher age group!"

"Well, I disagree," said Mr. Giroux. "We've been hearing that for years, and we've listened, but she's tired of dealing with kids who aren't on her level and I'm sure if she was at a higher grade level she would learn how to behave from older kids. Nothing you've described tells me she has problems, and it's not like she's caused problems for anyone else."

That's when the lights began flashing and finally went out and a familiar voice cried out, "Noooooo!" from down the hallway.

"Oh _no,"_ Mr. Giroux sighed.

As he and the other teachers and parents made their way toward the computer lab, hearing the frantic cries and frustrated screams, he hoped that it was just another child with a very very VERY similar voice to his own daughter—

"Amanda?" Ms. Foley said, holding up a flashlight and shining it into the computer lab.

Amanda looked up and saw very large group of parents and teachers, among them her own parents, standing in the doorway. "Papa? Mama?"

"Oh, Amanda," Mrs. Giroux groaned.

"Before you go blaming me," Amanda said hastily, "th-this wasn't my fault. You can just blame an evil digimon on the internet."

Mr. Giroux stepped forward. She couldn't see his face, but his tone of voice indicated barely-contained rage. "Amanda," he said. "We are leaving. You are going to get your things and get in the car. Then, on the way home, you can tell us where your brother is."

* * *

"I cannot believe this!" Mrs. Giroux shrieked once they got home. They were in her room. Mrs. Giroux stood while Amanda sat sullenly on her bed. "You blacked out the entire town, broke into the school, vandalized their computers _twice_, and on top of all that, you duct-taped your brother to the wall!"

"Well, the power came back on. Oh, and I duct-taped a water bottle with a straw next to him," she replied in her defense. "You know, in case he got thirsty."

"Yes, but it seems you forgot that he might have to use the restroom! You think I wanted to come home to that mess?"

Amanda managed to stifle a giggle.

"I want to just crawl in a hole and die!" Mrs. Giroux was saying. "Do you have any idea how upset your father and I are?"

"I'm… I'm sorry, Mama," she said, looking down.

"Oh not yet, you're not!" She took a deep breath. "You are grounded for a month."

"But that's almost all of summer vacation!"

"Good point. Let's just make it all of summer vacation."

"That's not—"

Mrs. Giroux stepped forward, her eyes slowly filling with angry tears. Amanda had never seen her mother so angry and decided, wisely, that this was not the time to discuss her punishment.

"Okay, Mama," she said. "I'm sorry."

Mrs. Giroux heaved a sigh, composed herself, and left the room, gently shutting the door behind her.

Reclining in her swivel chair, Amanda took stock of her day. "Well," she said to herself, "today was pretty much the worst day ever."

* * *

"Get back here, birdbrain!" the Gizamon shouted.

Penguinmon was getting tired. True, he was built for speed on the ice, but the three Gizamon were no slouches and apparently got a lot of exercise from beating up other defenseless digimon. They weren't wearing out in the slightest, but he was getting short of breath. Still, he knew the ocean was getting close, and once he was in the water, he was home free. All he needed to do was make it over one more icy hill and slide down.

He reached the peak and began to slide down when a large glowing circle appeared before him. It was a swirling portal of some kind and he realized his momentum was carrying him right toward it.

"Oh fishsticks!" he shouted, trying to slow himself with the claws on his flippers.

"Gotcha now, birdbraiiiohcrudwhatisthat?!" exclaimed a Gizamon as he and his cohorts pounced on Penguinmon. All four of them slid down the icy hill and into the portal. They were pulled into a swirling vortex, feeling like they were caught in a whirlpool, drawn into a spinning cyclone that broke Penguinmon free of their grip as he veered off in one direction, leaving them to go in another.

* * *

Amanda was lying in bed asleep. Her sleep was fitful and she tossed and turned under the covers, the events of the day haunting her dreams. In her mind, there was an ever turning slide show of Tara, her angry parents, her friend being dragged off, her teacher, and her dumb classmates… and then in her mind's eye she saw something small, square, and electronic appear in a beam of light. It slowly came into focus as she reached for it.

"A… digivice?" she breathed.

She opened her eyes and was surprised to see that, while the digivice wasn't there, the bright beam of light was. It was emanating from her computer monitor, bathing her room in a brilliant light. And then, phasing through the screen with a water-like ripple, a figure began to emerge. It slowly floated outward, spreading its wings.

_Is that a bird?_ she wondered. _It's so… so… fat?_

The light subsided, leaving only the glow of her normal monitor's screensaver to shimmer over the darkened room. The figure dropped to the carpeted floor with a heavy plop.

She carefully crawled out of bed and went to the figure, picking it up to have a better look at it.

"Ohhhh my god, it's a digimon!" she exclaimed, managing, somehow, to keep her voice down. She held it up, her expression one of pure joy.

Penguinmon slowly opened his eyes and saw, for the very first time, a human girl. She was looking at him with what he thought was either madness or extreme hunger.

"Gah! _Super Slap!"_ he shouted, and smacked her with a flipper so hard that she dropped him and fell to the floor.

* * *

In the dark forest surrounding the town, another portal appeared, illuminating the forest with a bright light, momentarily frightening the wildlife from their hiding spots in the shadows. When the light subsided, a large, hairy creature was left alone in the woods. As it looked around, taking in its surroundings, it said to itself, "I'm on... Earth?" It began to chuckle. "I'm a digimon on Earth."

In the distance, it saw the dim streetlights of Roxanne and, with heavy footsteps echoing throughout the night air, began to approach the sleepy town, a toothy grin on its face.

* * *

**To be continued…**

_Next time: Amanda and Penguinmon may be getting off on the wrong foot, but both of them will find themselves caught up in something far bigger than either of them could have imagined. Please leave a review and let me know what you think!_**  
**


	2. Entanglement

**A Small Girl in a Small Town**

**Part 2**

"**Entanglement"**

* * *

Penguinmon stood there panting, ready to defend himself against the counterattack he was sure would come from his assailant. However, the creature which had been holding him a moment ago did nothing of the sort, but only groaned and struggled to sit up. She put her hand to her cheek and looked at him with tear-filled eyes.

"Owww!" she cried. "What did you do that for?"

He lowered his flippers when he realized this strange creature was not going to attack him. "I, uh… I'm sorry, I thought you were going to eat me."

"What? Why would you think that?"

"Well it wouldn't be the first time someone's tried, and what else am I supposed to think when I wake up and some weird-looking creature is holding me up with its mouth wide open?"

"I am not—" she stopped herself, wincing as she lowered her voice. "I am not weird-looking!" she said again in a more hushed voice.

"Look, I said I was sorry," he grumbled. "The name's Penguinmon. I'm just confused. Where the heck is this weird place anyway?" He looked around at the small room which was covered with strange images of other weird creatures, their eyes large and their bodies in dramatic poses. He guessed, correctly, that it was some kind of residence, a sleeping chamber of sorts, though where he lived in the Digital World there were no buildings close by, so he had no real concept of what "indoors" looked like. This was the first time he had ever been in what could really be called a "room."

"Oh wow," she said, her expression really changing to one of amazement, now really getting a look at the small creature. He was short, barely a third her height, not even up to her waist. He was a deep blue color on most of his body with bright orange eyes. On his head were two long crest feathers that were white on the tips. Its belly was white as well with more blue stripes on it. He had stubby-looking flipper-like wings with red claws on the tips. His bill and feet were yellow, although the tip of his nose was bluish-black. "Wow," she said finally. "You're right, I guess I should be more understanding. You really _are_ a digimon!"

"Uh, yeah. And, what, you aren't?" he asked.

"No, of course not!" she giggled. She stood up before him and pointed to herself. "My name is Amanda Fabienne Giroux, and I'm a human!"

He gawked at her. "A… a human? Wait, does that mean I'm in… I'm on—"

"You're on Earth!" she exclaimed.

His eyes went wide. "I… wow. I don't believe it… the legends about the humans, the planet in the sky… Does this mean what I think it does?"

"That's right!" she exclaimed, barely able to contain her joy. "I'm your Digidestined partner and you're my digimon!"

"Amazing!" He suddenly bowed his head solemnly to her. "I am not worthy of the honor. I will do my best as your partner."

She wasn't sure how to respond to this sudden display of reverence, but it was clear that he held the position of Digidestined in very high regard. She put her arms to her sides and likewise bowed respectfully to him.

"The honor is all mine, oh honorable partner of… um… honor," she finished lamely.

With that, the two of them stood up and smiled at each other. They said nothing, but each continued to smile for a few more moments before they each started looking to each other's sides and then peered behind each other's backs.

"Um," Amanda began, "what are you doing?"

"Heh heh… uh, what are _you_ doing?" Penguinmon asked back.

"Well, it's just… shouldn't you have my digivice?" she asked.

"What? No, I was looking for where you were keeping it!"

"Well I don't have it!"

"What makes you think _I _have one?"

"I don't know, I've never done this before, I don't know how this works!"

"Well, neither do I! Did you lose it or something?"

Amanda frantically started looking around her room. The digivice, the small electronic device that linked a human to his or her digimon partner was something all Digidestined carried, so hers must be there! Maybe it had come through with Penguinmon when he came out of her computer? Or perhaps it had appeared just prior to his arrival? It had to be there, it just had to! Penguinmon was here, after all, he came right to her room, so he had to be her partner. She just had to find a digivice to prove it. The only other explanation was—

"You're not a Digidestined, are you?"

She stared at him. He crossed his flippers and stared at her with a very tired expression. "Well?"

"N-no, that's not possible!"

"Uh, look, Human, I—"

"Amanda."

"Whatever. The point is, there's no digivice here. I may not know much, but even I know that Digidestined have digivices and you don't have one."

A cold sensation went down the length of her body as the truth of his words sank in. "No," she breathed. "No, that's not possible!"

"Sorry, Human, but I guess we're not partners. You're not a Digidestined."

_"No!"_ she shrieked, and immediately clapped her hand over her mouth when she realized how loud she had screamed. It was too late, however, and she now heard her father's heavy footsteps coming up the hallway and by the way he was grumbling it wasn't going to be good news when he arrived, much less when he saw Penguinmon standing there. After all, his receptiveness to her interest in digimon was tepid at best and now having a live one in her room was bound to cause even more trouble. She figured she had about seven seconds to hide Penguinmon before her father arrived.

"My father's coming," she hissed. "I have to hide you!" She quickly picked him up and looked around frantically for a place to hide him.

"Hey, put me down, I can take this 'Father' thing—"

"Shh!" she hissed. Hearing him just outside her door, she made a split-second decision and roughly stuffed Penguinmon inside her nightshirt.

Mr. Giroux opened the door and groggily asked, "Amanda, what's going on in here? Do you know what time—" It was then that he noticed his daughter standing there, her belly round and protruding.

"Look, Papa!" she exclaimed, throwing her hands up in the air. "I AM T3H PR3GNANTZ!"

Mr. Giroux stared at her for a few seconds, blinking uncomprehendingly as she did nothing but offer a sheepish grin. "Well… that's…" he said finally, but then never finished that sentence as he backed slowly out of her room and shut the door, returning to his own bedroom.

"Let me out of here!" Penguinmon growled as Amanda helped him free. "It's bad enough you try to trick me into thinking I'm your partner without you mon-handling me!"

"Mon-handle?"

"That's it, where's the exit? I'm out of here!"

"What?" she cried. "But you just got here!"

"So? Just because some weird dimensional portal deposited me in your sleeping chamber doesn't make me your property, Human!"

"I… I didn't say that, I just…" she sighed, and her look of disappointment was so powerful that he momentarily softened.

"Well, what is it?" he asked.

"I love digimon," she said. "From the day I learned about them, I've been fascinated by them. And I've also always wanted to be a Digidestined ever since they saved both our worlds. They're heroes here too, you know! And I've studied all about digimon and the Digital World and I thought you coming here was a sign." She sighed. "But… even if we're not partners, maybe you could… stay here?"

Penguinmon looked around the tiny room uncertainly. "I don't know… I'm used to wide-open spaces. And I see a forest outside that glass square."

"You mean my window? Well… of course, I won't _make_ you stay if you don't want to. You're right, you're not my property."

Penguinmon nodded. "Thank you for understanding. Well, it was nice meeting you, Human."

"Amanda."

"Yeah, that." He began to waddle over to her bedroom window. She had to think fast; the only digimon she'd ever seen in person, the one who came right into _her _room, was about to leave, was about to just walk out of her life forever.

"I have food!" she cried suddenly.

He froze. "Food?" he repeated. "Did you say 'food?' What do you mean?"

She brightened. "Food! You're a penguin so you probably like fish, right? I have fish I can give you!"

Now it was his turn to brighten. "Fish? Well… I guess, if you're offering…"

"Wait right here!" She ran out of the room and returned with a can of tuna.

He stared at it blankly. "What? What the heck is _that?"_

"It's tuna!" she said, and peeled open the lid of the can, offering him the contents. He just stared at it, not taking any. To placate him, she picked a small chunk from the can and ate it. "Mmm, tuna!" she said (in a manner not unlike a mother trying to get her young child to eat something).

He sniffed the contents of the can cautiously and then, gingerly with the tiny claws at the end of one flipper, took a piece of tuna and ate it. He immediately made a face.

"How long has this been dead?"

"Huh? I don't know, it's just an ordinary tin of tuna. At least a while, I guess."

Penguinmon gave her a very sour look. "I don't know how it is among _humans,"_ he said, and his tone was grave, "but among digimon, we do not offer our friends old, greasy food. We only offer the freshest things we can find. To offer less is… is just insulting!"

"No, I didn't mean—"

"I've had enough! Goodbye, Human!" He waddled over to the window again, leaped up to the window sill and tried to pry it open. "Um… urk… little help?"

Amanda went over and lifted the window for him.

"Thanks. Um, sorry, but I'm still leaving." He hopped out the window and ran across her backyard, out into the woods behind her house.

She stared after him for several minutes even after he was gone. "I thought we were partners," she said, finally. "No… this can't be true… no…" She continued to stand by the window, hoping against hope that Penguinmon would return, until eventually she lacked the will to stand there any longer and returned to bed. Even as she drifted off to sleep, her eyes filled with tears, and she whispered one last time: _"Penguinmon… please come back…"_

* * *

Izzy sat at his computer while sipping from a can of soda. Diaboromon's defeat the previous day had left some curious aftermath. Gennai had contacted him directly after the incident, and he said he could arrange for all eight of the Digidestined children to come to the Digital World for something very important. But then he had laid the bigger bomb on them: "all eight" Digidestined was no longer accurate.

Oh, to be certain, the news that there had been other Digidestined before them who had beaten back something from beyond the Wall of Fire had been a surprise, but whoever those children were, they were not around now for whatever reason. However, Gennai's message was not ambiguous, and that was a rarity with the old man. It was a simple statement, followed by a humble request: "There are other Digidestined children appearing in countries around the world on your planet and they may come to the Digital World. Please try to help them."

Well, that sounded good in theory, but if they were in different countries then _how_ were they supposed to help them?

"It's not just a matter of distance," he told Tai, "but a matter of linguistic incompatibility! It would be entirely unreasonable to expect that every new Digidestined has the capability to speak Japanese just because the original eight were of that nationality!"

"Don't worry, Izzy," Tai said in his usual devil-may-care way. "Maybe Gennai wants us to help them take Japanese language classes!" he laughed.

"Tai, this is serious! What are we going to do if someone in a foreign nation needs our help?"

Tai shrugged. "We'll help them. However we can," he added. "We just need to figure out what they need help with. Maybe they'll just want advice."

"Well, how will they contact us?"

"Isn't that the easy part?" Tai asked. "Heck, a bunch of kids from around the world already found your email address to write their support."

"Well, yes, but it's not like I could understand everything they said."

Tai thought this over. "Okay, I've got an idea, and it's actually a pretty good one!"

Izzy wasn't sure about that, since the ideas Tai was usually the most confident about had the more disastrous results. Still, he was his friend and a pretty reasonable strategist, so maybe he really did have a good idea in him. "All right, what's your idea?"

"Okay, get this… we'll have a bake sale," he said, and Izzy began to narrow his eyes, "and with the funds, we'll invite all the Digidestined to Japan for a Digidestined Convention!"

Izzy finished his eye-narrowing and waited to see if Tai was kidding. He was not.

"Tai," he said, "as cool an idea as a Digidestined Convention is – and I really do mean that – most of the Digidestined in the world are kids like us. How are we going to afford to bring potentially hundreds of kids together to Japan?"

"Oh, good point. I don't think we could make enough brownies to do that," Tai said, mulling that over. But a second later, he sprang right back and his face lit up with another flash of inspiration. "Oh, then why don't we just bring them together over the web? You could make one of those email things."

"Email… things? What like a… a mailing list!" Izzy brightened. Why hadn't he thought of that?

"Yeah, that's it!" Tai said. "One thing we learned was how important it was to have the others there when we needed them. Maybe a mailing list to stay connected would be a good way to handle things!"

Izzy nodded. "Well, I think I'll need to practice my English a little. Or hope a lot of them speak Japanese. Maybe after we get a running list of them we can make a website with an online forum…"

Tai smiled, seeing the figurative gears in Izzy's head start to turn. "See, Izzy? I told you it would be no problem!"

"But where do I start? I don't think I can just Google search for Digidestined."

"What about those kids who sent us the emails while we were fighting Diaboromon? Maybe some of them have seen other digimon around. Or they know someone who has."

Izzy nodded. "Well, that's a start. I have to admit, Tai, you really do have some good ideas today!"

Tai crossed his arms and smiled smugly. "Ha! Maybe you're rubbing off on me, Izzy. Pretty soon _I'll_ be the one bringing a laptop to summer camp!"

The two of them shared a laugh as Izzy turned to his computer and began compiling a list of all the children who had sent emails the previous day.

* * *

Amanda awoke with a groan, feeling not the least bit refreshed from her night's sleep. For a moment, she forgot the previous evening's happenings, but then her eyes went wide as she recalled the strange visitor and she jumped out of bed to search her room. Then her eyes went to the window and she remembered that he was gone.

_Was that… even real?_ she wondered slowly. _There's no sign that…_ then she looked to her nightstand and saw the partially eaten can of tuna sitting there.

"It _was_ real," she breathed. "There was a real digimon in my room!" That he had left still weighed heavily on her mind, but at least it was a sign that it wasn't a dream. Just to make absolutely certain, she dug out a small chunk of the tuna and popped it in her mouth. "This isn't so bad… crimony, that Penguinmon is picky!" Still, she wanted to meet him again. If he was still out there, maybe she could track him down. In the meantime, there were some questions she needed to answer.

She went to her computer and nudged the mouse, causing the monitor to come to life. She got online, irritably noting the slowness of the connection as she searched for news of the events of yesterday. Sure enough, there was news of the blackout in Roxanne's newspaper's site, but when she checked the _Toronto Star_, she was in for a bigger surprise:

_"CyberTerrorism attack shuts down computers worldwide," _she said, reading the top story's headline aloud. "What is… there's no mention of Diaboromon here at all! What is this, a government cover-up?!" The story the official sources were giving out was that cyberterrorists had sent a hacking program to cause chaos in computer and electrical systems worldwide, spreading from Tokyo to New York City and several other cities around the world. Not a single mention was given to Diaboromon, to digimon, or to the Digidestined.

Frustrated, she checked some of the same forums she was reading last night in search of some better details. For some reason, it seemed like only kids were able to witness the fight with Diaboromon, which might explain the lack of coverage in the mainstream news. Luckily for her, there was news from other kids who had seen the end of the fight. She read with elation how Taichi Kamiya and Yamato Ishida entered the Internet itself and their two digimon, WarGreymon and MetalGarurumon, fused into Omnimon to defeat Diaboromon. Some kids had even managed to take screenshots of it happening. From what she read, it was now clear that the emails and cheering and support from all those kids had helped to power the transformation.

"Oh my god," she said, nearly in tears with elation. "Since I sent that email that means that I also helped make that happen! I wasn't totally useless after all!" This was about the only positive thing that had come of the previous evening that she could name.

"Mama, Papa!" she called, running from her room to the kitchen.

"Sh, just a moment, Amanda," her mother said. "We're listening to the morning news on the radio."

"But I—"

"Listen!"

She reluctantly quieted herself as she listened to the radio broadcast. _"-have no idea what sort of animal might be responsible for such an attack, but Will Hamilton of Roxanne County Animal Control advises all citizens to be cautious when venturing outside until the animal is identified and found."_

Amanda and her parents all exchanged concerned glances. They continued listening as Will Hamilton gave a soundbite. _"Well, it's kind of a mystery as to why the animal turned over the entire dumpster to scrounge for food behind the restaurant, but it must have been very strong to turn it on its side. We believe the animal came into town around 3 AM, tipped the dumpster, ate its fill, then fled back into the woods surrounding town. It probably won't come around during the daytime as to avoid people, but likewise people should avoid it. All citizens should be on alert and stay away from the woods until we've had a chance to identify and capture the animal."_

"What the heck happened?" Amanda asked.

"Something tipped the dumpster behind Wong's Wok," her father replied as he resumed eating his breakfast and drinking his coffee. "After that, you heard what the radio said." They heard a small noise and saw Philipe standing in the doorway to the kitchen.

"W-what kind of animal?" he asked nervously.

Mrs. Giroux smiled reassuringly. "Oh, they don't know yet, but I'm sure it's nothing."

"If it tipped a dumpster," Amanda said with a mischievous grin, "it was probably a bear. A big _hungry_ bear. You better be careful, Philipe, I hear bears like to eat little boys who—"

"Amanda, that's enough!" her mother hissed. To Philipe she said "Don't worry, sweetie, the man on the radio said he's probably scared of people too. That's why he came at night."

"Yeah, that's right," Amanda said. "So be careful when you sleep tonight or the bear will—"

_"Ahem,"_ her father coughed, as he gave her a sharp stare. "Philipe, relax. Just come and eat your breakfast."

"Can I have Pop Tarts?"

"But your mother made oatmeal."

"I know. That's why I asked if I can have Pop Tarts. Oatmeal's yucky."

The rest of the family collectively rolled their eyes. Then Mr. Giroux turned his attention to Amanda. "Speaking of sleep, young lady, would you care to tell me what was going on in your room last night?"

Amanda was startled by this question. She had figured her father had totally forgotten about the previous evening. "What do you mean?" she asked innocently.

"I remember you screaming and… and then I went to your room…" he said, now sounding unsure of himself.

"And then what?"

"Er, you yelled something and then you were… uh… pregnant."

Mrs. Giroux and Philipe looked at Mr. Giroux skeptically.

"Um, I'm pretty sure I'd remember that, Papa," she said, gesturing to her flat belly. "But if you say so, then who was the father?"

"That's not funny, young lady," Mr. Giroux grumbled.

"I hope it was someone rich and handsome," Mrs. Giroux quipped, joining in on teasing her husband with a smirk.

"Okay that's enough out of you two!" he growled, turning slightly red. Even Philipe was chuckling now. "Fine, maybe I imagined the whole thing. Apparently I'm the only one who hears anything in this house, because _something_ woke me up last night. I'm pretty sure I didn't dream that."

Amanda glanced sideways at Philipe. "Maybe it was the bear."

"Bear?"

"There is no bear, dammit!" Mr. Giroux said, pounding his fist on the table. "Will you two please eat your breakfast and get ready for school? And Amanda, don't forget that you are to come right home after school so you can start your grounding!"

She folded her arms and gave a smug smile. "What for?"

"You know perfectly well what for! You blacked out the whole town with your silly computer experiment and then tried to blame it on those digimon things!"

"Maybe you haven't checked the news, then?"

"I have the local newspaper right here."

She beckoned them all into her room and showed them the _Toronto Star_ page. Upon reading the bit about a cyberterrorism attack shutting down computers and electrical systems worldwide, both of her parents looked at each other uncomfortably.

"All right," Mr. Giroux said. "But you still broke into the school and hacked their computers."

"Not hacked. I just rewired them."

"Fine, fine, whatever," he said with a sigh. "You still did something bad and we are going to have to punish you for it."

"But you _just said_ I was grounded for blacking out the town," Amanda pointed out. "And I just showed you that I probably didn't do that. Cyberterrorists did." She wanted to explain that it was a digimon, and not a cyberterrorist, but she figured she ought to focus on one thing at a time.

"She has a point, Wesley," Mrs. Giroux said. "I guess maybe… we owe you an apology…"

"No, no, it's fine, you're forgiven," she said, smiling triumphantly. "Well, I better get ready for school—"

"Not so fast, young lady," Mr. Giroux said. "You still broke several rules, both at school and in this house, and you are going to have to pay for it somehow."

_Crud,_ she thought. "Okay… what's my punishment?"

"Well… your mother and I will discuss it with you. We'll tell you this evening after school. In the meantime, it's getting late, you need to get ready for…" He stopped, sniffed the air, and then looked over to see the can of tuna on her nightstand.

"Sweetie," her mother began, "why do you have an open tin of tuna in your room?"

"I… got hungry last night," she said, thinking as quickly as she could. "Sorry, I guess I didn't eat very much of it. Eheheheh."

Her mother chuckled. "That's okay. The mercury in it is probably bad for the baby anyway." She elbowed her husband at this.

"Yes, yes, very funny," he grumbled. "Okay, enough weirdness this morning. Everyone get ready for work or school. Amanda, if you and Philipe are late, then you can consider yourself officially _re-_grounded."

After wolfing down breakfast, taking a quick shower, and getting dressed, Amanda took a moment to check her email. Though it was usually empty of anything other than reviews or comments about her _yaoi_ fanfics, she was surprised to see an email with a Japanese address in her inbox. She looked at the "From" and "Subject" lines and realized with amazement that it was from Izzy and it was about Digimon. Here is what it said:

_Hello and thank you for email!_

_I am Izumi Koushirou. Please call me Izzy. I am digidestined with digimon. I am sorry but do you see digimon after Diaboromon is defeat? If you meet digimon maybe you digidestined too! Please send email if you meet digimon and I can help you! We together let's do our best with partner!_

_Good luck!_

_-Izzy_

"Oh wow," she said. She couldn't believe it. She had just been sent an email from one of the original Digidestined. It was clear that he needed practice with English, but it seemed easy to understand and it was a heck of a lot better than she could have done in Japanese. She decided to write back, for even though she wasn't a Digidestined, she _did_ meet a digimon. Maybe Izzy could give her some advice on making friends with digimon. Or maybe…

"What if I build my _own_ digivice?" she asked. Granted, she had no idea how to do that, but maybe if Izzy had some specs she could give it a try. It was a long shot, but at least it was a possibility!

She excitedly typed up her email and sent it in a matter of minutes, managing to get it finished just as Philipe came knocking on her door to demand that she walk him to school.

"All right, Philipe, let's go get this day over with," she said grouchily, even though she had a feeling that today was going to be far better than the day before.

* * *

In the early morning sun, Penguinmon grunted and opened his eyes. He was leaning up against a damp, moss-covered log by the side of a river. He stood up on his two little feet and heard his spine crack as he stretched. _Jeez, this is only a little better than my little ice cave back on the glacier,_ he thought to himself. After leaving the human's house, he had wandered into the dark woods trying to find some shelter. He heard the sound of rushing water and came upon the river in the dim moonlight. It seemed a good place to set up, since it would be easy enough to get water and catch fish, which were pretty much the only two criteria he had for a home.

He felt a little guilty for storming off from the human's house. In retrospect, she couldn't be blamed for not knowing digimon customs. And she had offered to share her food with him, which, now that he thought about it, was something nobody had ever done for him, at least not since he was a hatchling. On the contrary, it seemed someone was always after whatever food he managed to get his flippers on. He wondered where those lousy, rotten Gizamon went off to…

_Whump!_ He froze at the sound. He turned around and heard something fairly large stomping through the forest, coming toward the river. He hid behind his log, peering out to see what it was. His eyes went wide when he saw the big, white, furry creature come up to the river, not 3 meters from where he stood. As it stooped to get a drink, he scrunched down and hoped it wouldn't see him. He also covered his nose at the end of his beak, as the creature smelled horrible. Finally, it stood up and walked off, heading up a nearby hill.

_That was close,_ he thought to himself. _Can't believe there's another digimon like that around here. Not exactly someone I want for a neighbor. Maybe I'll just see how the fishing is here and move downstream after I've had my fill._

* * *

Amanda and Philipe walked to school that morning along their usual route when it occurred to Amanda that a slight detour would take them by Wong's Wok, the restaurant that was attacked last night. Being the kind of person she was, her curiosity took hold and she dragged a slightly confused Philipe along a slightly different route.

"Hey, what gives, Sis?"

"I felt like going a different way today," she said innocently.

He looked at her skeptically, but they continued until they came to Wong's Wok. The place was a small Chinese restaurant, the only one in town, and it did a decent business with lunches and weekend buffets. Mr. Wong didn't usually open the place until lunch, but he kept it open until 9 pm. It was closed now, but Amanda heard some noise coming from around the back of the building and started towards the alley.

"Wait a minute, Sis, is this… is this where the b-bear attacked?" Philipe asked, backing away.

"Philipe, relax, I was just kidding about the bear. Bears haven't been seen in the hills around Roxanne in decades. They live farther north!"

"Maybe one came here by mistake!"

She sighed. The fun she'd had earlier was backfiring on her now. "I hear adults back there, Phil. It's safe. Tell you what, if the bear suddenly comes back, I'll block it and let it eat me instead of you."

"Well… okay…"

_Way to show concern, ya brat,_ she thought to herself. But at least he was complying as they snuck around to the back. She took in the scene behind the restaurant.

Will Hamilton, the animal control officer, was there and talking to the sheriff. They were in turn talking to Mr. Wong, who was gesturing angrily at the upended dumpster. The dumpster had been dented severely and its foul-smelling contents strewn all over the back alley. The area had been taped off and it didn't look like any of them were in any mood to talk to anyone, let alone a couple of curious kids. But then Amanda spotted something amid the debris.

Among all the garbage and on the dumpster were occasional clumps of what looked like white fur or hair (if there was a difference). Their solid, bright white color was striking, as was the length of the fur. Philipe could have been right about it being a bear that had strayed south, but neither a black bear nor a grizzly bear would have that color of fur. Unless it was an albino… or… maybe it was an escaped polar bear?

_I have to get a sample of that fur. I've got a hunch…_

"Psst," she whispered, leaning down to Philipe. "Hey, Phil—"

"Ewww! Sis, your breath smells like tuna fish!" he said, waving his hand.

"Quiet down, you brat, it does not!"

"Yes it does! You forgot to brush your teeth! Eww, it's so gross!"

She raised her hand to her face, testing this accusation. _Aw crap, he's right. I must have forgotten to brush my teeth in the rush this morning!_ She blushed as she realized she would have to go to school like that this morning. She sure hoped Leon's sense of smell wasn't as good as Philipe's.

"Ha ha! Icky fishy sissy!" he sang. "Icky fishy—"

"Shh! Just shut up for a second!" she hissed, barely controlling her anger and embarrassment, glad the three adults had not noticed this exchange. "Philipe, how would you like to make a dollar?"

"Sure! Wait, for what?"

She whispered her plan to him.

"Make it five, Fish Breath."

"Two."

"Three!"

"Done."

Philipe stepped out into back alley, took a deep breath, and ran at the three adults yelling "Grr, I'm a bear! I'm a big scary bear!"

"What the, hey watch it, kid!"

The three adults scrambled to catch the swift-footed little boy. While the three of them were momentarily occupied, Amanda rushed in and snatched up the nearest clump she could find, pocketing it quickly before any of them could see.

"Philipe, there you are! Stop bothering those nice men!"

"Oops, sorry, Sis," Philipe said with well-practiced sweetness and innocence. "I was just playing."

"I'm so sorry, Sheriff," she said, leading Philipe away. "He just got away from me."

The sheriff smiled. "Sure, just be more careful with that brother of yours, okay?"

"I will!" she said, and the two of them went back to walking to school. _Jackpot,_ she thought. _I may have to wait until after school to examine that fur, though._

"Okay, where's my money, Sis?" Philipe asked.

_"Mon Dieu_ you're impatient!" she said, reaching into her backpack for the wallet she kept there.

* * *

The two of them arrived at school with a few minutes to spare before the first bell. Philipe immediately went off to find his friends while Amanda quickly found Yvonne leaning against a wall with a small book in her hands.

"Yvonne! I'm glad I found you!"

Yvonne smirked as she saw her friend running over. "Well well well, returning to the scene of the crime?"

"Huh? What crime?"

"Breaking and entering, dummy," she laughed. "Fair warning: the whole school heard you broke in and wired the computers together. But at least we know you didn't cause the blackout last night."

Amanda sighed with relief. It looked like she was off the hook for that much, at least.

"Yvonne, you should have seen it!" she said. "There I was at home—"

"—When you saw the cyberterrorism reports, freaked out, and thought it was a digimon," Yvonne finished.

"Thought? But… it really _was_ a digimon!"

Yvonne laughed. "You and your imagination. Don't tell me you're buying into all those hoaxes on the 'net."

"But… but I _saw_—"

"I'd let it go, Mandy."

"Ugh don't call me that!" She hated being called "Mandy." Yvonne knew this and called her that whenever she wanted to tease her about anything. That, combined with the fact that her best friend didn't believe her about the digimon, was nothing short of infuriating.

"Look, the school's talking and, uh, even we have limits on how far we can take the whole 'social outcast' thing. Check out this book I'm reading."

Amanda took it from her and read the title: _Howl_ by Allen Ginsberg.

"Read the first bit of it."

She'd never heard of it, but it was a long poem. She began reading the first bit: "Let's see… 'I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked, dragging themselves through the negro streets at dawn looking for an angry fix, angelheaded hipsters burning for the ancient heavenly connection to the starry dynamo in the machinery of night—'"

"Yeah, you get the idea."

"Ugh. Goth or not, this is kind of depressing, even for you."

Yvonne wagged a finger at her nonchalantly. "The point is you should pay attention to the first bit there. 'The best minds of my generation destroyed by madness.' You need to stop talking about digimon all the time, Amanda." She leaned in close, saying this last part quietly, but firmly. "People are going to think you're crazy."

"Yvonne… how can you think—"

"Whoa!" she said, pulling back and making a face. "Geez, Amanda, did you have tuna salad for breakfast?"

"Not you too!" she groaned. "I forgot to brush my teeth this morning, so sue me!"

"Uh oh," Yvonne said, chuckling. "Looks like your timing couldn't be worse." She pointed and Amanda turned around to see Leon running toward them.

"Oh no. Oh no no _no!"_ she cried, looking around frantically for some kind of escape. Just yesterday she had scored some points with this cutie and now he was going to catch her with fish breath!

"Hey," he said, coming over. "I wanted to talk to you girls."

"What's the story, Leon?" Yvonne asked.

_How can she be so calm talking to him?_ Amanda asked herself. _He's sooo cute and he's nice and he doesn't care if we're a geek and a goth and how can she just stand there and talk to him without wondering what it'd be like to kiss him… oh god, now __**I'm**__ thinking about kissing him! Oh god, would it taste like fish to him? Mama says boys can't smell as well as girls can, so maybe—_

_ "Amanda!"_ Yvonne exclaimed. "Hello, things okay on the moon? Leon just asked you something."

"Hm?" She felt her cheeks begin to burn as she blushed involuntarily.

Leon smiled and laughed good-naturedly. "I heard you did something with the computers last night. People tell me you thought that cyberterrorist or hacker or whatever was a digimon, but I think they're just spreading rumors. So, like, what happened?"

Amanda was stuck. Paranoid about tuna-induced halitosis and without an excuse, she wasn't sure how to respond. She thought fast and covered her mouth with both hands, her elbows jutting out at 90 degrees like a pair of wings, and said in a slightly muffled voice, "Nope! No digimon last night!"

Yvonne might have been happy Amanda had taken her advice had she not just assumed the most awkward-looking pose ever. She gawked at her, giving her a look that plainly said, "Are you freaking _serious?"_

"Uh, heh heh… why are you covering your mouth like that?" Leon asked, once again losing his cool demeanor in the face of this odd girl.

"Ummm…"

Just then the bell rang and students reluctantly began filing into the school. Amanda breathed a sigh of relief, lowering her hands. "Bell," she said simply, sticking her thumb in the direction of the door. "Gotta go. Bye." Feeling humiliated, she ran off, leaving Yvonne and Leon to themselves.

"No offense, but she's really weird," Leon said.

Yvonne shrugged. "Weirdness works for people like us."

"You're not that weird, Yvonne." And now it was her turn to blush.

"Yeah, um… thanks," she muttered.

Leon snapped his fingers, remembering something. "Oh, right, I remember. I overheard some of the girls talking. Tara and her little gang are still pissed off about what you did yesterday."

"It was worth the after school detention."

Leon laughed. "Yeah, it was hilarious. Glad someone finally told off that stuck up snob. But the point is that she's on the warpath. You and Amanda need to watch your backs. I think they want revenge."

Yvonne nodded. "Thanks for the tip. I'll be sure to let Amanda know there are monsters on the loose."

What neither of them, nor Amanda herself, would realize until much later was that Tara and her little gaggle of cronies were by far the _least_ dangerous monsters wandering around that day.

* * *

Across the world, Izzy's day was winding down. He had received a few emails from other kids, many of whom sent badly translated Japanese emails, and others who wrote in their own native languages he hadn't the first idea of how to reply, but at least things were progressing, if a bit slowly. It was then that he got an email in English with a Canadian address. He read it carefully and was glad that the writer had chosen to write it in simple English.

_Hello!_

_My name is Amanda Fabienne Giroux! I'm from Canada! Last night a digimon came to my room! I really love digimon and the Digidestined. Do you have some advice to deal with digimon?_

_Your friend,_

_Amanda_

_P.S. How does the digivice work? Do you have specifications or pictures of the inside?_

Some of it was hard to understand, like the word "specifications," but it didn't take him long to use a dictionary and get the whole meaning. He figured that at the very least he could help this person out, even if things were going slow for all the others.

He did his best to be careful and write the best English he could as he wrote his reply.

* * *

Principal Jacobsen sat across from the other members of the school council. This emergency meeting had been called a mere hour ago and they had all rushed over to the conference room at the high school. The principal of the junior/senior high school was there along with the superintendent and the handful of councilmen who represented the small district.

"This is going to cause chaos," he said. "I still think this is a terrible idea."

"Listen, we need to think about the safety of the students," said one councilwoman. "Gerald, think about how terrible it would be for us if that animal attacked a little boy or girl on the playground!"

"Yeah, the lawsuit would probably mean no budget for a Christmas party this year!" The others turned and glared at the councilman who said this. "Oh, and, the uh… emotional damage would… um…"

"_Anyway,_" the superintendent said, "we can all agree that it would be a terrible thing. Let's inform the teachers and send out calls to the parents and get ready to make adjustments in our schedules."

Gerry Jacobsen sighed. The animal attack at Wong's Wok was about to be the catalyst to a day's worth of chaos.

* * *

Ms. Foley looked over the note one last time. The first hour or so of class had gone fine, but she knew things were about to erupt into chaos. Unless a messenger came by and sent another message telling her the decision the school council had made was suddenly reversed, things were about to get loud and noisy. She looked at the clock and realized that it wasn't going to happen.

"All right, class, pay attention," she said, quieting them down. "Well, I have what most of you will consider good news. Even though there are technically two more days of school left, the school council has decided to cancel the remaining class days and start your month-long summer break early." This was met with gasps and immediate cheers that she had to hush (followed by her having to get many of them to sit back down in their seats as they immediately made for the door). She continued explaining from there. "Now this is very important, class. The reason for this is because of the animal attack behind the Chinese restaurant in town."

Amanda's ears perked up at this and she reached into her pocket, feeling the clump of hair she snatched that morning.

"We don't know what animal it was," Ms. Foley continued, "but we know it was big and strong. We want to protect all of you, and it might be difficult to do if we let you outside for recess or sports or when you're waiting for the bus, so we're calling your parents and finding out when they'll be picking you up or if they want you to come home, etcetera. So, sit tight and I'll let you know once I get a message from the Main Office about what your parents want."

_Oh great,_ Amanda thought. _Mama's going out of town today and Papa never takes a day off of work. Sounds like I get to babysit Philipe today._

Not long after that, Ms. Foley got the first list of students whose parents had been reached and most of them were told to meet them outside the school soon. Amanda was not among them.

"Amanda, your brother is going to his friend Bobby's house. You know who that is?"

She winced. When Philipe was alone, he was bad. But with Bobby Stephens, he was even worse. Bobby's parents laughed off every single rotten thing he did, saying "Boys will be boys!" She pictured an afternoon filled with loud music, surprise skirt lifts, water pistol assaults, and peanut butter smeared in her hair.

"Is that my only option?"

"Well, unless you want to stay here and help out around the school. They might want someone to help with copies or to play with the kindergartners while they wait for their parents. Or you could just study."

One of the boys laughed at this. "Who would want to stay in school and study for their first day of summer break?"

"I bet Amanda would!" his friend loudly replied, drawing laughter from her other classmates. She made a face and looked down.

"Quiet, all of you! Amanda, you're free to choose any of those options."

"Actually," she said, "staying here doesn't sound so bad. I could… just go to the library."

The snickers were heard again, but Ms. Foley just nodded and went on to the next student.

* * *

Amanda walked out of her classroom, her backpack stuffed with her books for the summer, and started down the hallway. It was mostly deserted, as most students had been told to meet their parents, to go with friends, or just walk home. She rounded a corner, making her way to the library. It was just beyond the 5th grade classrooms. _Maybe I can find Yvonne and get her to keep me company,_ she thought, brightening somewhat. She waited by Yvonne's classroom door, hoping her goth girl friend would stroll out momentarily. The door opened and she saw… Tara and her cronies. Tara was laughing about something when she looked in Amanda's direction and their eyes locked.

_Oh __**crap**__, _she thought.

"Whoa whoa, hold on. Look who it is, girls!" Tara said.

"Uh, h-hi, T-tara," Amanda said. "I-is Yvonne around?"

"Uh, n-no she isn't!" Tara laughed, mocking her stammer. "The vampire split as soon as she heard classes were cancelled. The teacher said they couldn't reach her parents and she just walked out. Teacher tried to stop her, she just stared at her and kept right on walking."

One of her cronies, Stacy, chimed in. "You should have seen the look she gave," doing a mockingly menacing glare. "Like she was going to put a curse on her or something. You know, like a witch or something."

"Or something," another crony, Sandi, added. "That girl is soooo freaky."

Tara nodded approvingly. "Perfect word for her. What a freak!" She stepped towards Amanda, her three companions swiftly coming around to surround her. She backed up against the wall. "But then, speaking of freaks, there's _you._ Your vampire friend is going to pay for what she did, but I saw you throw your nasty lunch at me too. Now you're going to pay for it, you little geek."

Amanda looked around frantically for help, but the hallway was vacant. She was about to scream for help and took a deep breath when two of the cronies rushed forward to grab her arms and cover her mouth.

"Look at the little piggy squeal!" Tara giggled. "At least your friend would put up a fight instead of crying for help. Well, you already look pretty trashy in whatever nerdy clothes your mommy put you in, but we can do better." Tara leaned in, her eyes hard and her smile cold. "Around here, we're in charge, and you're just garbage. That's why we're going to stick you in a trash can and roll you down the hill to the soccer field."

She struggled hard, trying to get free and uttering muffled squeals of protest as they began to lead her away.

"Amanda?" a new voice said and the girls all froze. They turned and saw Ms. Foley round the corner. Tara and her cronies looked to each other nervously. Ms. Foley saw her student in the hands of the fifth graders and crossed her arms, giving them a glare so icy that it put even Tara's to shame.

"W-we were just—"

"Tara, Stacy, Sandi, Tiffany, let her go."

"But—"

_"Now."_

They released Amanda, making a small opening for her.

"Amanda, please come with me. I found something for you to do. Is that okay?"

Amanda just nodded, walking over to her. As she went, Tara grabbed her shoulder, digging her nails into her shoulder.

_"This isn't over,"_ she whispered.

"Tara!" Ms. Foley yelled, and Tara released her grip, taking her leave with her gang in tow.

* * *

Back in the classroom, Ms. Foley and Amanda were alone. They sat down on opposite sides of her desk.

"Um… thanks for your help," Amanda muttered.

"I'm glad I came when I did," Ms. Foley said, her smile genuine. "It looks like Tara hasn't changed from when she was in my class last year."

"So, what did you want, Ms. Foley?"

"I just found out that Mr. Perkins is working on the computers in the computer lab this morning. You know him, right?"

Amanda brightened and nodded her head. She did indeed know him. Mr. Bradley Perkins was the owner of Perkins' Parts, a little shop where he sold computer parts, some software, and a repair service. She regularly stopped by to see if she could get some older, out of date parts for her various devices or modifications or just to ogle the more advanced hardware. He seemed to appreciate her enthusiasm and was impressed with her knowledge of computers when he showed her some of the machines he was repairing.

"Well, after you broke in and tampered with the computers—"

"It was for a good cause!"

"_Regardless_, he's been called in because nobody else in the school knew how to put them back the way they were. Technically, you're still in trouble for modifying the machines in the first place, but I'll forget all about that if you help him. And we want them back _exactly_ as they were, Amanda. Don't overtime them or something."

"Overclock?"

"Right. That."

"Well, actually, I think I probably could—"

"No, no, forget I said that. Just clean up the mess you made and we're even."

She nodded respectfully. "Okay, Ms. Foley." _Spoilsport,_ she thought.

Ms. Foley was quiet then but she looked like she had more to say. Finally she sighed and leaned back in her chair and looked at Amanda with something like exasperation, or perhaps it was pity. All Amanda knew was that she didn't like being looked at that way.

"Amanda, you know I had a talk with your parents last night. Did they talk to you about it?"

"A little, but they were kinda mad about the computers and the blackout thing first."

"Right. Well, I don't think our talk went very well, to be honest. I think you're the kind of person who isn't easy to pigeonhole. With the other children, they generally fall into one category or another and I can talk to their parents in terms of their 'type,' as it were. In that sense, it's easy to detach ourselves from judgments of them as individuals and just see things in terms of 'Problem' and 'Solution.' Do you understand what I mean?"

"Sure. You mean parents get angry if you talk about their kids, so you say things like 'Children like yours are blah blah blah' and then tell them what that kind of kid needs."

Ms. Foley smiled. "Exactly. And that you followed what I was saying so easily is a decent example of why I can't really do that with you. I hate to admit it, but it's hard to nail down your problems and therefore their solutions. And that makes it hard to talk to your parents, because we can't detach ourselves from the issue… you don't really have a type, per se, so we have to talk about _you_."

Amanda folded her arms. "I don't have any problems."

Ms. Foley chuckled. "Now _that's _just not true."

"Why don't you talk to my classmates? They're the ones who—"

"Amanda, just stop right there. I want to talk to you like an adult here, so please just let me speak for a little bit. Okay?"

She sighed and looked away, already thinking about what she would do once she got to the computer lab, but halfheartedly replied, "Okay."

"Listen: you're a very special young woman. You're blessed with very high intelligence and the last thing I would ever want to do is discourage you. But sometimes it pushes others away because of how you flaunt it. Remember when Rick came in wondering why he couldn't get that game to work on his computer and you asked him a bunch of questions about the RAM, the processor, etc.?"

"Yeah, and in the end the problem was that it was only for PC and his family has a Mac!" she laughed. "What a dope!"

Ms. Foley sighed. "Yes, Amanda, that's what I'm talking about. You made him feel stupid for not knowing more about his computer and again for not knowing the difference between a PC and a Mac. You do that sort of thing often. You had an opportunity to help and maybe make a friend, but you embarrassed him. And now Rick is among the many others who enjoy teasing you in class."

Amanda looked down, but said nothing.

"When you behave that way, people put you down, and your reaction is to retreat further into that shell of yours and become even more adversarial with them. You can't keep treating people like enemies just because they aren't as intelligent as you. Right now you're just a small girl in a small town; you're Wesley and Anne Giroux's daughter. But things can turn ugly in a small town once you get old enough to have your own identity. You may be special and like keeping to yourself, Amanda, but small towns _don't like_ special, and they absolutely _hate_ secrets. If you aren't more careful, you're going to dig yourself a hole and end up alienating everyone around you. All I want is for you to make some friends or you're going to end up isolated in your own hometown."

Amanda grumbled something under her breath.

"What's that?"

"I said, 'Who cares?'!" she snapped. "So what if other people think I'm weird? I don't have to change who I am! I won't live in this town forever, and I only want to be with people who appreciate me anyway!"

"Amanda, I didn't say you had to change who you were, first of all," Ms. Foley said, "and second of all, right now you don't seem to have anyone besides your family and myself who _do_ appreciate you. Everyone else, you seem to push away."

"Yvonne appreciates me! It's the quality of your friends, not the quantity that counts anyway!" she said with pride.

"True, but—do you smell tuna fish?"

"Um… no."

"Er, well, anyway…" she looked reluctant to go on, but finally she said, slowly, "Well… to be honest, I'd question how good a friend Yvonne is. I mean, I can't say that much about a former student, but…"

Amanda gawked at her. "So, you judge her too," she said bitterly. "Just because she dresses and acts differently."

"Amanda, it's not that. There are things you just don't know—"

"Save it." She said this with such force that Ms. Foley was actually shocked. Amanda realized with horror that she had basically just told her teacher to shut up and felt her confidence waver. Still she took a deep breath and went on. "I've heard enough. I won't let you say anything bad to me about my friend. May I go see Mr. Perkins now?"

Ms. Foley looked at her sadly. She said nothing else, but nodded and motioned to the door.

* * *

When Amanda walked into the computer lab, Mr. Perkins was busily detaching the wires that connected one of the computers to another. He didn't notice her enter or approach until she finally said "Good morning, Mr. Perkins!"

"Hm? Oh, hey, there's the little girl whose mess I've been cleanin' up all morning! How ya gettin' on?" He said this good naturedly, without a hint of anger or frustration. Nonetheless, she felt she ought to apologize.

"I'm fine. And, uh, yeah," she said, laughing sheepishly, "they made me go home last night before I had a chance to disconnect them all from each other. I came to see if I could help."

"Yeah, I don't see why not! See if ya can give me a hand finishin' up with the last of 'em and then checking their systems. It'd go faster with two people, by?"

Balding, about 40 years of age, with a mustache and his uncommon Newfoundland accent, Mr. Perkins was the unwitting butt of a lot of jokes in Roxanne. He had lived in Newfoundland most of his life, but during the late 80s and early 90s he became interested in computers and learned all he could about them. Though mostly self-taught, he eventually went into business as a computer repairman and parts seller. He did some research and found that there was no such business in Roxanne and moved there a few years earlier. In the last few years, Amanda was one of his most regular customers, even though she rarely had the money to buy anything.

The two of them worked quickly and finished the job of putting the computers back to regular working order.

"I appreciate the help, dear," Mr. Perkins said, "but I gotta ask ya about this one ting I found."

"What do you mean?" she asked, genuinely confused. She was pretty sure she hadn't left anything loaded onto the computer. She had made that anti-viral program to send against Diaboromon, but it had been destroyed.

"Well, I made it so ya can see the hidden folders and files and such, right," he said, "but I found this ting here and I was wonderin' if it was your doin'."

She looked and saw a program's icon the desktop of the computer. Looking at the screen, she read the name of the program, but it was just a seemingly random mess of text: "~$eb5sh0%4."

"No," she said, looking at it suspiciously. "I didn't put that there, I swear. And it wasn't there when I logged on last night that I know of."

"Well, the antivirus programs didn't say it was a virus or notin', but when I checked all the other machines, it looked like they all had the same program." And now it was his turn to look suspicious. "The weird ting here was that when I looked, it seemed they each ran in the background several times, just turnin' on and off, by? I got no clue what it does, but I've got a good mind to just delete it to be on the safe side o' tings."

"In the background?" Amanda asked. "So it was invisible to anyone using the computer?"

"Yeah, unless you went lookin' for it. Very strange. Well, help me remove it before it causes some trouble."

"Wait a minute," she said. "Why don't we run it manually?"

"What for?"

"Well, so we can see what it does, of course!"

"I'm not sure I want to risk damagin' these machines," Mr. Perkins said. "It wouldn't look too good if I came here to repair 'em and just ended up makin' 'em worse, by?"

"Yes, but you didn't find anything wrong with the other computers and they all ran the program in the background anyway, right? So, it looks like the program doesn't hurt anything. Let's just give it a try! Think of it like a science experiment!"

Mr. Perkins laughed. "Well, all right, I suppose it can't do no harm. I didn't reconnect 'em to the internet yet either, so I guess no worries about hacks or notin'."

Amanda placed her hand on the mouse, found the strange icon, and double clicked it.

A window opened on the screen and it began to display strange runic symbols scrolling upward in long vertical lines. She thought she could hear something as well, so she turned up the volume on the computer's speakers and heard a high pitched electronic sound. It was garbled and filled with static.

"What… _is _this?" she asked aloud.

"I, uh, don't know how to explain it," Mr. Perkins said, "but I got a bad feelin' about that. Let's shut it down."

"Wait!" she said. "It's not doing anything, really, let's just run it on the other computers as well and see if that does something."

Mr. Perkins still seemed reluctant, but Amanda went from one computer to the next, running the program on each one. Every time, the same scrolling runic symbols and high-pitched sound accompanied it. But when all the computers were running the program at once, the sound began to sync up and she heard a repeating pattern, a kind of frequency to the noise. But then the lights in the room began to flicker.

Mr. Perkins began to look even more panicked. "Uhhhh that shouldn't happen…"

Amanda suddenly looked down and saw a pale glow emanating from her pocket. Stealthily, she opened it and saw the clump of hair she discovered that morning. It was glowing and it looked as if an electrical current was running through it.

_It's reacting to the program! Or maybe the sound?_ She stared at it, momentarily transfixed by the sight, but nothing could have prepared her for what happened next.

There was a loud booming sound from behind them and they both whirled around to look out the windows. Just outside, a bright light appeared and began swirling around and around like a whirlpool, only turned on its side. It made a deep, rumbling sound, not unlike a large, growling animal. After a few moments a creature came through its swirling center and the whirling light disappeared in a flash.

"By tunder… what is that ting?" Mr. Perkins demanded.

The creature was small, not much taller than Penguinmon, she noted. It looked like a dog, but it stood upright and it was a bright yellow color with black, floppy ears and a tail. It had sharp looking claws on each of its three toes (or, was it "fingers," since it stood?) and big white teeth shaped like a bear trap or a saw blade. Its big eyes had small green eyes and it had a capital letter 'D' on its chest. The best word she could think of to describe it was "cartoony."

The creature finally took note of the two humans looking at it through the window and offered a mischievous grin. It gave a wheezing laugh and ran off.

"Amanda, turn those programs off!" Mr. Perkins commanded. The two of them immediately closed the programs. Amanda noted that the clump of fur in her pocket stopped reacting once the programs were off.

"All right, Amanda, stay here where it's safe. Delete all of those programs before it brings another monster. I'm goin' after that crazy ting!"

"Wait!" she cried, causing Mr. Perkins to freeze in the doorway. "I… I may know what that was." He looked at her with confusion, but she took a deep breath and tried to explain it calmly. "That was a digimon. I think another digimon is the one that smashed the dumpster behind Wong's Wok and there was another that appeared in my room last night. I'm not sure how, but I think the program on the computers is related to them somehow."

He stared at her, saying nothing.

"I know, I know, you're going to say that digimon can't come into our world anymore, but—"

"No!" he cried. "If I hadn't just seen that ting with my own eyes, maybe, but… well, I know I'm not crazy, so it must be real. I just can't believe that they're here in our town… oh my nerves…"

Amanda looked at him with concern. He looked like he was about to have a heart attack or something. "Mr. Perkins, are you all right?"

"Yeah, yeah," he replied, taking a few deep breaths. "Listen, if that ting really is a digimon, then I gotta stop it before it hurts someone. You stay safe and I'll meet up with ya as soon as I can. Meantime, don't go blabbin' about this until we decide what to do!"

She was about to protest that she wanted to help him look for the digimon, but could see that he was going into "protective adult mode." There was no way he would consent.

"Okay," she relented. "Just be careful, okay?"

"God love ya. Don't worry, I'm tougher'n I look, by?" And with that he ran from the room.

She did delete the program from the computers, but she had a feeling that just cleaning up the school computers wasn't going to solve the whole problem, so she put a copy of the program on a floppy disk (though it barely fit!) and, seeing nothing left to do, left school and headed for home.

* * *

After her encounter with Tara and the strange digimon she spotted earlier that day, Amanda was especially on edge as she made her way home. Suddenly the familiar settings of her small town seemed potentially dangerous. Hostile things could be lurking around every corner and now the one ally she could count on, Mr. Perkins, was off chasing one of them. She couldn't help but feel a bit outmatched. She wished she had someone else she could count on. Someone like…

"Penguinmon," she said to herself. She sighed as she looked up and saw that she was in front of the local grocery store. Suddenly something the small digimon had said echoed in her mind and she got an idea.

* * *

Back at home, she set her backpack down in her room and stretched out on her bed.

"What a day," she said. "I could use a nap."

She thought about all the things that had happened that day. A real, live digimon came through her computer, and that was the most amazing thing, but that was just the start. She snatched evidence from what she felt for certain was a digimon attack, she had a small fight with her friend and embarrassed herself in front of her crush, nearly got dumped in a trash can by the meanest girl in the 5th grade, told off a teacher, let someone else in on the digimon secret, and discovered a strange program on the school computers that brought yet another digimon into their midst. Without a doubt, it was the weirdest day of her life, and she had a feeling things were just starting to get weird.

Her belly rumbled and she realized it was almost lunch time. "Eh, forget a nap, I need some lunch."

She found some leftover tuna from the can she'd opened and made a tuna salad sandwich and brought it to her room. While she ate it, she decided to check on another hunch. She went back on her computer and enabled the viewing of hidden files and programs. Sure enough, on her computer was the same "~$eb5sh0%4" code from the school computer. Checking the history, she also found that it had run. In fact, unless she was mistaken, it had run at the same time Penguinmon had appeared. But, more disturbingly, it had run a time or two during the 10 or so since then.

_Is this my fault?_ she wondered. _Does this have something to do with me tracking Diaboromon yesterday? There is definitely a connection between this strange program and the digimon… digimon… wait!_

"My email!" she said, suddenly remembering. Checking it quickly, she was delighted to see that Izzy had already written her back. She opened it and eagerly read its contents:

_Dear Amanda,_

_Thank you for email! Congratulations you have a partner! Remember digimon is good friend and always protect you! Protect your digimon too! Please be kind to each other and always be brave and you can do a good job as digidestined!_

_I'm sorry. I don't have specification for digivice. Please be careful and don't take apart!_

_Good luck!_

_Your friend,_

_-Izzy_

She was a bit puzzled for this. "I didn't say I was a Digidestined," she said to herself. "I just said a digimon came to my room and… does this mean I really am?" She considered this and realized he probably just misunderstood what she meant. It was also a shame that he didn't have any specs on a digivice. She certainly couldn't build one from scratch and it sounded like he wouldn't take his own apart just to help her out.

But another part of the email resonated with her. She read over the part about being kind to one's partner and about being brave. She thought again about the bad terms she and Penguinmon parted over and then found herself thinking about Mr. Perkins. He knew he was up against a digimon and still went after it. She had done almost nothing brave at all today and acted like a coward in front of the boy she liked and the bully she feared. She looked around her tiny room and saw all the characters from all the anime she adored, each of them a brave hero who faced evil head on.

"Serena, Duo, Kenshin, Spike… give me strength!" she said, standing up and clenching her fist… which succeeded only in crushing the remnants of her sandwich.

Not letting the smooshed bread and mayonaise on her fingers dampen her mood, she opened her closet and pulled out a large wooden box. Inside were various bits of machinery and other broken or half-finished devices. After a few moments of digging, she found what she was looking for.

"There you are… time to prove that you really do work."

* * *

Penguinmon shot out of the water and landed on the rocky shore of the river, waddling back up the bank to his little spot by the log. His belly rumbled and he gave a sigh. Now that the sun was overhead, he could appreciate the green forest and the tall trees that surrounded him. Having lived his entire life either in the water or on a glacier, he was used to nothing but ice and very few plants. Now, however, he was getting used to all the trees, bushes, and other vegetation in this forest. For a place with so much life, he would have thought he could catch larger fish in the river, but he'd spent the whole morning swimming the river and barely caught enough to be counted as a light breakfast.

He heard the sound of footsteps approaching and dove into a nearby bush. Though these were far less heavy than those of the creature from this morning, he didn't want to take any chances. As it stepped out into the clearing by the river, its back was turned to him and it peered at a strange contraption it held in its hands. Then it turned and looked straight in his direction. He gawked when he saw who it was.

"H-hello?" Amanda said. "I know you're there. You can come out, I won't hurt you!"

Penguinmon emerged, relieved it was only her. "Hello again, Human," he sighed. "What are you doing here?"

"Penguinmon!" she cried, looking far happier to see him than he was to see her. "I'm so glad I found you!"

"Yeah, I… um… again, what are you doing here? Wait, how did you know I was here?"

She beamed proudly and held up the strange contraption in her hand. "I found you with my own invention: the digimon detector!"

* * *

**Giroux Gadget #1: The Digimon Detector**

This device is a simple design. With a radar-style screen on the front, any digimon within 50 meters appears as a glowing blip on the screen. While it cannot tell what kind of digimon it is or give any information about it, it can nonetheless tell the direction of digimon on a horizontal plane.

Amanda's Notes: "I based this device on some reports from the original Digidestined once they got back from fighting Apocalymon. Izzy said the Digimon Analyzer on his computer could read data given off by every digimon based on their uniquely coded electromagnetic frequency. Since digimon are made of data, they give off a mild electromagnetic field. I build a device to detect electromagnetism above a certain strength (so it won't just detect devices like computers or electric fans or something) to help me track any digimon in the area!"

* * *

"Well, that's… actually kind of impressive!" Penguinmon said, not really getting her explanation. "And you said you just… made that?"

"Of course!" she said. "I'm the greatest scientific genius in Canada!"

"If you say so. What's a Canada? Or 'scientific?'"

"Never mind. How are you doing?"

Penguinmon's belly rumbled at that.

"Oh, you poor thing, are you hungry?" she asked.

"I'm fine!" he grumbled. "I just… haven't caught many big fish in this lousy river here. I keep getting these tiny minnows, and they're almost not worth the trouble."

She beamed at that and set her backpack down, removing her lunchbox from it. "I think I can help!" she declared.

"Hey, I already told you, I don't want your greasy, dead—"

"No, no, I know, this is different!" She opened the lunch box. Inside, packed with a few baggies of ice, was something wrapped in white paper. She opened the paper to reveal a sizable cut of salmon. Penguinmon gawked at the bright reddish-orange flesh and his mouth began to water.

"Uhhh… that's um…. (slurp) that looks pretty good."

"I thought you might feel that way," she said, and slid it over to him. "It's all yours!"

He looked at the fish hungrily, but then looked to her suspiciously. "If I take this, it doesn't mean I agree to be your partner or live with you or anything."

"No, I… I know, I just…" she trailed off, somewhat sadly. "I just felt bad about last night. You said friends don't give each other old, dead food. This is nice and fresh, the man at the grocery store said so. Never frozen! I just… want us to be friends!"

Penguinmon was a bit taken aback by this sincere display. He wasn't used to selfless displays from anyone, and there was no doubt that this was one of the nicest gifts anyone had ever offered to him. Still, trying to remain nonchalant he said, "All right, I'll consider it. Mind if I taste it first?"

"No, not at all! I hope you like it!"

He picked up the salmon and took a bite. His eyes nearly popped out of his head. To Amanda's surprise (and, shortly thereafter, a mixture of joy and disgust) he went facefirst into the salmon, ravenously devouring it, getting it all over his face, stripping it down to the skin.

"Do you… like it?"

He looked at her and she saw tears running down his face. "It's… this is the most delicious thing I have ever eaten in my life. Ever."

She stifled a giggle. "You gonna be okay?"

"Mm hmm," he said, wiping the bits of salmon from his face and then licking his flippers. "Ohhh, dear sweet Goddramon, that was amazing."

"There better be some leftovers, birdbrain!" a harsh voice said, suddenly. Both Amanda and Penguinmon turned to see a lone Gizamon standing nearby. "I finally found you!" he growled.

"Gizamon!" Penguinmon said, holding his flippers out widely as he stared down his four-legged amphibious foe. "What do you want?"

"We may be in a different dimension now, but you still owe us tribute! Now there better be more of that fish you were eating or we're going to have trouble!"

Penguinmon laughed. "Who's going to collect? You're on your own, and I don't see your two idiot partners with you."

"I can still take you in a one-on-one fight, birdbrain!"

Just then Amanda picked up a large stick and held it out like a sword. "How about one-on-_two_?" she asked, standing next to Penguinmon.

"What the heck is _that?"_ Gizamon demanded, apparently noticing Amanda for the first time.

"That?" Penguinmon asked. "That's… that's my new friend," he said. "She's a human. And you better be careful or she'll use one of her human powers on you. I hear some of them breathe fire or drink blood!"

Amanda looked to him and caught Penguinmon's sideways glance and got the hint. "Uh, yeah, I… I suck blood all the time. I suck hardcore!" she shouted. _Oh crud, don't laugh, don't laugh, I hope he buys it._

Gizamon looked at them unsurely. "Okay, birdbrain, you're in luck today, but your pet human won't be any help once I find the other two Gizamon! We'll be back and then you'll pay!" With that, Gizamon hopped away into the forest.

"Oh jeez," Amanda said, dropping the stick. "I can't believe he bought that."

"You're a terrible actor," Penguinmon said. "Just the same, good job, Human."

"It's Amanda," she said, grumbling. "You could bother to remember if you're going to call me your friend. Wait… did you…"

Penguinmon rolled his eyes. "Yeah, yeah, okay, we're friends. Don't make one of your faces again."

Just the same she had a hard time containing her joy. _I did it! I'm friends with a digimon now!_

"Listen, it's pretty dangerous out here," Penguinmon said. "Gizamon's not the only digimon out here."

"Oh, that reminds me," she said, reaching into her pocket. She removed the clump of white hair and showed it to him. "Does this look familiar? I'm looking for whatever digimon this came off from."

Penguinmon nodded. "Yeah, that fur came from Mojyamon. And unlike Gizamon and myself, he's a Champion level. Tough looking guy, smelled like garbage. Where did you get that?"

"He attacked my town. He knocked over a dumpster. I think he was looking for food."

"Yeah, that sounds about right," Penguinmon replied. "I think he's set up just a little bit up the hill here." He pointed in the direction he saw Mojyamon wander off that morning. "Just stay away from him and you'll be fine."

"I can't do that," she said, suddenly looking determined.

"Wait, what?"

"If he comes to town again, he might cause more damage, or hurt someone. Or maybe someone will hurt him. I have to convince him to stay in the forest."

Penguinmon looked at her and laughed. "Uhhh, yeah, that's a terrible idea. He may not be that big, but he's pretty strong and probably not going to back down if food's involved."

"I don't care," she said. "I have to try and reason with him."

"You're crazy!" he yelled. "Why would you do that?"

"Because that's my home down there!" she shot back, and began walking up the hill.

"Stop! You'll get yourself hurt, Human!"

"My name is not 'Human!'" she screamed. "I am Amanda Fabienne Giroux and I may not be a Digidestined, but I _will_ protect my town and I will _not_ be a coward!"

Penguinmon stood there. The small, fragile human he knew suddenly looked taller, stronger, and her look of determination as she looked at him over her shoulder convinced him that she could not be talked out of her course of action.

"Fine," he grumbled. "Your funeral."

Amanda took a deep breath and continued up the hill.

* * *

It didn't take her long to find Mojyamon using her digimon detector. He was fast asleep, his back to a tree, and he was snoring loudly. He was only a short distance from her, but she approached him quietly, cautiously, and she could already smell the scent of garbage and old lo mein noodles on him. _No doubt about it, _she thought, _this is the guy who attacked Wong's Wok._

She took a step closer and he suddenly stirred in his sleep, yawning and revealing large teeth with some very nasty, pointy canines.

_Okay, Amanda, you can do this. Remember your Shinji mantra: I mustn't run away, I mustn't run away, I mustn't run away…_

"Um, excuse me, Mr. Mojyamon?"

"Hm?" Mojyamon grunted, one pink eye opening immediately.

"Uh, eheheh, hi!" she said, trying to stay brave. "H-how are you today?"

Mojyamon stood up to his full height. He wasn't terribly tall, only a little taller than she was, but his body was big, round, and burly. His shaggy white fur covered everything except his pink face, hands, and feet. He looked very much like what she imagined a yeti would look like, and noted that his hands and feet were enormous for his small size. As he stood, scratching his belly, he held up what looked like a leg bone, its knee bending it into a 'V' shape.

"Hello, my name is Amanda," she said. "I-I-I am a human from the town just down the hill. I think you came to our town and ate some of our garbage. A-and that's okay! You can eat it, but you made a big mess and some of us are very afraid!"

Mojyamon belched and stared at her with a very bored expression.

"Ha ha, well, I'll cut to the chase!" she said, deciding to hurry things along. "I'm sorry, but it'll cause a lot of trouble if you come to our town again right now and make another mess. Maybe I can help you out or help you get home or something later, but for now maybe you could… just stay here? In the forest?"

Mojyamon raised an eyebrow. "What did you say? Did you just tell _me_ where I can and can't go?" His voice was gruff and rumbling. The edge of menace in it was not lost on her.

"W-well, I don't want you to hurt anyone or have someone hurt you! I'm sure you're a very nice digimon!"

Mojyamon snorted. "Mojyamon are generally known for being pretty gentle," he said, "but every rule has its exception. I don't really care if someone gets hurt when I come to your town, they just better stay out of my way. And now that I get a look at you," he added, chuckling derisively, "I doubt any humans could hurt _me._"

"Well, I'm actually kind of young—"

"That food I got out of that box wasn't as good as I thought it would be. The meat was old and dry and a little rotten. I've had indigestion all day. I've had some berries and stuff I found in this forest, but I could sure go for some fresh meat." He grinned at her now.

Her eyes went wide. "Oh."

He took a step closer to her.

"W-well, I've taken enough of your time, thanks for hearing me outsorrywecouldn'tagreebyebye!" she said, turning tail to run.

_"Bone Boomerang!"_ Mojyamon yelled, hurling the bone at her. The boomerang caught her under her legs, sweeping them out from under her and she fell onto her back. While she groaned, disoriented, Mojyamon caught the boomerang and pounced forward, seizing the girl in one hand and holding her up to examine her more closely.

"You're kinda small," he said. "Not too much meat on you."

"Thanks, I've been laying off the poutine—what am I saying?"

"No idea," Mojyamon said, sniffing her. "Well, you still smell all right. I suppose you'll make a decent meal."

"H-hey, wait, you don't want to eat me! Humans taste terrible! I was cannibal-curious in third grade and trust me, we're totally overrated."

"Jeez you're noisy," he grunted and pushed her to the ground, still holding her fast with his oversized hand. He raised his bone boomerang over his head like a club.

_Oh great, I wanted to meet a digimon and now I get to be one… via digestion, _she thought. Her eyes went wide, suddenly realizing the severity of the situation she was in.

"Now hold still," Mojyamon said. His hand nearly squeezed the breath from her lungs and the stench of garbage was overpowering.

"No, please! Don't hurt me! I'll do anything, just please let me go!" she pleaded as a cold terror set in and her eyes filling with tears. "Please! Someone help me! Someone _help me!"_ she screamed.

Mojyamon just laughed as he took aim at her head with the boomerang.

_"Super Slap!"_ cried a familiar voice and a blue flipper landed with a loud _crack _across Mojyamon's face. The large, hairy digimon was so surprised that he dropped the boomerang and released his would-be prey.

Amanda sat up and saw Penguinmon position himself defensively between herself and Mojyamon.

"Penguinmon, you came for me!" she exclaimed with joy and seized him in a tight hug.

"Augh, what the hell is wrong with you?" he demanded. "Put me down and run!"

Regaining her senses, she did as she was told and ran with Penguinmon as Mojyamon recovered from the sudden attack. The two of them made their way through the forest, but soon heard the angry brute giving pursuit. The two of them finally made it back to the river where she'd found him not five minutes earlier. The river was only a short drop below them from the bank, its swift waters rushing by loudly.

"What now?" she asked.

_"Bone Boomerang!"_ The attack could be heard whizzing toward them and she froze as she turned to see it coming at them.

"Dive!" Penguinmon yelled and pushed her roughly into the river below before jumping after her, narrowly avoiding the boomerang as it sailed over them. The two of them splashed into the cold water and he saw her floundering, still totally disoriented. _Jeez, this human talks big but she sure has lousy survival skills. Then again, so do I after pissing off that big ape!_

"Grab onto my feet!" he yelled.

"What? Why—"

"Just do it, hurry!" he yelled. She seized his small yellow feet and he suddenly took off like a torpedo down the river just as Mojyamon jumped into the river behind them. He tried to give chase, but he was slowed down by the deep water and soon the two left him far behind, his angry shouts fading into the distance.

* * *

The two eventually stopped riding the river and came to shore as it exited the woods. They reached the land panting, both soaking wet and dripping.

"I didn't… realize you could… swim so fast!" she said, still trying to catch her breath. "I could barely… hold on!"

"It's a gift," he said, laughing slightly. "You okay, Amanda?"

"Yeah, I… hey, you… you didn't call me 'Human' that time!" she said happily.

"No, no I didn't," he said, offering her a smile.

"Oh wow, this is just like one of my anime shows where two people finally call each other by their first names to show they respect each other!"

"Well… sure, okay, I'll admit it, you earned my respect with that big speech of yours. Too bad you couldn't back it up with Mr. Big and Hairy back there. What the heck's an 'anime?'"

Amanda started laughing. It was a long, relieved, almost hysterical laugh, but to Penguinmon's surprise it gave way to her expression changing and the laughs presently became sobs.

"Whoa, what are you crying about?"

"Oh Penguinmon, I was so scared!" she said through the tears, throwing her arms around the small avian.

Unsure of what to do, still not quite comfortable being embraced by another creature, he gave her a pat on the back with a flipper. "Uh… there there, it's okay."

"Thank you… thank you for coming back…"

"Okay, it's all right now."

She released him and tried to wipe the tears from her now reddened face. "W-wait… where are my glasses?"

"Those things on your face? They probably fell off when we were going down the river."

"Oh no… I can't see well enough to get home without them. I have an old pair at home, but how will I…" she trailed off as she started to cry again.

"Whoa, okay, okay," he said, raising his flippers. "It's all right, I can see fine, and I think I know the way back to your house. And, uh, when we get there… well, you know, it's kinda dangerous with Mojyamon out there, so… I mean, if the offer's still good…"

Amanda cocked her head to the side. "You… want to stay with me now?"

"Sure," he said, sounding disinterested. "Just if you want me to. I guess I can try some of that dead fish in a tin. It's not that bad." He looked at her and she looked like she was about to cry again. "Oh, what now? You're not going to start bawling again, are you?"

She was tight lipped and just shrugged her shoulders as she took a deep breath, tears forming in her eyes.

"Wait, is this because you're sad?"

She shook her head violently.

"Is it because you're… happy?"

She nodded.

"Weird. Okay, fine, let it out, but just try to keep it down while you follow me back, okay?"

She nodded and, squinting through her tears and nearsighted vision, followed the little blue bird back towards her home.

"I'm glad you're coming to stay with me," she managed to say, sniffling as they went along.

"Yeah, you're all right, Amanda," Penguinmon said. "You're starting to grow on me. Besides, I kinda like that your breath smells like fish."

_"Mon Dieu!"_ she shouted. "That's it, when I get home, the first thing I'm doing after I get dried off is brushing my teeth!"

* * *

Lying in a hospital bed, somewhat lightheaded from the painkillers he'd been given earlier, and his leg bandaged, Mr. Perkins took stock of his day. He had tracked down that digimon, all right, but the snickering hound had bitten his leg and caused it to bleed so profusely that the school had needed to call an ambulance. He'd told them that it was a wild dog that attacked him, though after looking at the wounds his doctors didn't look totally convinced. Just the same, he would have to hobble around with a cane for a while until his leg was fully healed. That meant that it was just him and Amanda Fabienne Giroux who knew about the digimon in their town. He knew perfectly well what both the kids and adults thought of Amanda's obsession with digimon, and if they both started blabbing about them they'd both be labeled as crazy. Still, there had to be something that they could do.

He reached for his large, black cell phone attached to his belt and dialed a number from memory. "Hello? Yes, this is Mr. Bradley Perkins, may I speak to Mr. Wesley Giroux? Yes, I'll hold…" he waited for a few minutes until Mr. Giroux finally answered. "Hello, Mr. Giroux? Yeah, this is Mr. Perkins. I got someting I need to talk to ya about… No, my car's fine. Actually, I'd like to talk to ya about your daughter…"

**To be continued…**

* * *

_Next time: Amanda and Penguinmon may have teamed up, but with digimon still on the loose and no one else to fight them, how will they protect the town? Meanwhile, Mr. Perkins has ideas of his own, but what part will the two play?_

_Please leave a __**review**__ and let me know what you think! A special shout out goes to my Canadian readers! Let me know if you have any feedback about anything in this story!_


	3. Covalent Bonds

**A Small Girl in a Small Town**

**Part 3**

"**Covalent Bonds"**

* * *

Penguinmon stirred for a few moments as he woke up. He blinked in the darkness, a dim light barely illuminating the narrow space where he slept. He was wrapped up in a comforter, curled into makeshift bedding at the bottom of Amanda's closet, her shirts and jackets dangling from their hangers just above him, surrounded on all sides by various pairs of shoes. He figured he should probably get up, but he hated to do so. In all his life, he'd never slept so well.

Having spent most of his life on an icy, windblown glacier, he was used to sleeping wherever he could. He'd slept in soft snowdrifts, on bare ice, on dampened sandy beaches, and, as of yesterday, on a forest floor. But though Amanda apologized profusely about not having a real bed for him and forcing him to sleep in a closet, it was actually the most comfortable place he'd ever spent the night. The softness of the comforter, the warmth, the quiet… he didn't know why the girl had apologized.

He grinned as he thought about his current situation. He was now living on a different world with a real, live human, and he swiftly realized that while Amanda was very apologetic about having to hide him in her closet and sneak him food, it was all a massive upgrade from his old living situation. She'd invited him to live in her palace, and acted as though she lived in a hole in the ground.

When they arrived the previous day, fresh from their encounter with Mojyamon, Amanda's parents had been calling for her. As soon as she heard their voices, she told Penguinmon to hide in one of the bushes in their backyard as they came around the corner of the house. He still wasn't sure why he had to hide at the time, but figured there must be a reason for it. From his hiding place, he watched as they came up to her and immediately started in.

"Amanda!" her mother cried. "Oh there you are, thank God! We found out you went home instead of going with Phil, but we didn't see you here and—" here she hugged her and then recoiled. "Ugh! Amanda, what in the world happened, you're soaking wet!"

"And where are your glasses, young lady?" her father added.

"I, uh… I fell in the creek."

"The creek? Wait, in the woods?!" her mother gasped. "You went in the woods?!"

"Well, yeah."

_"Mon Dieu,_ Amanda, what if you'd been attacked by the bear?" her father demanded angrily.

"I thought you said there _was_ no bear!"

"I could have been wrong, it wasn't worth the chance!"

"Look, I… I just wanted to do some investigation to see if I could find some samples of hair or droppings to definitively prove that it really was a bear," she explained, figuring that was as good an explanation as any, and certainly better than telling them she went looking for a digimon (and had been almost killed by said digimon). "It's not like anyone else in this town is doing anything about it."

"Wait, wait, wait," her father said, holding up his hands. "Let me get this straight. You went into the woods and nearly got yourself drowned and lost a pair of glasses… to go looking for _bear crap_?"

Amanda looked down. "It sounds kind of stupid when you say it like that, jeez," she muttered.

The two of them escorted her into the house, leaving Penguinmon outside for a few minutes. While he sat there, wondering what he should be doing, the back window of the house opened and Amanda poked her head out the window.

"Penguinmon!" she called, trying to keep her voice as low as possible. "Come here, I'll sneak you in through the window!"

He came out from the bushes and she lowered him a noticeably damp towel from the window. He grasped it with his flippers and she pulled him up into the room. He found it a little funny that he would have to sneak back into the house through the same window he'd left through the previous day, but didn't comment on it. Amanda explained that while she was fine with digimon and had no problem with one living in her house, it wasn't likely to be met with as much enthusiasm by her parents. Penguinmon didn't really understand the word, "parent," but he recognized that they clearly had authority in the house and he was more-or-less being smuggled in under their noses. He was less worried about what these parents might do to him, however, as what they might do to Amanda. She stressed it was vital that he stay hidden from them, that he was not to come out when they were around, and if he was discovered, that he should remain totally motionless and pretend he was a "stuffed toy."

Since it was pretty common for her mother to wake her up in the morning, it was a good reason for him to stay hidden in her closet. And even that required some quick thinking.

"Oh, by the way, Mama," Amanda had said the previous evening, wearing her older prescription glasses, "I know I've been worrying you a lot lately. Let me make it up to you… I'll wash and dry and hang my own laundry from now on."

"Amanda, that's nice, but really—"

"No, really, I want to do it myself. And if you have any of my clothes, just give them to me, and I'll put them away. There's no need for you to put them in my dresser. Or my closet."

Anne Giroux had eyed her suspiciously, but she shrugged her shoulders and agreed to her daughter's newfound sense of responsibility. Less laundry and work to be done around the house was nothing to complain about, after all.

Which brings us back to the present. Penguinmon rolled from his bedding and pushed on the door of the closet. It was shut firmly, so he jumped up and seized the doorknob, managing to twist it enough to open the door and waddle out. The room was empty and, using his keen hearing, honed from living in the wilderness, he detected nobody else in the house, but did hear the sound of running water coming from down the hall. Since it seemed nobody was home except for himself and Amanda, he figured it was safe to leave the confines of Amanda's room.

_After everything she's done, especially after the way I gave her the brush-off earlier, I owe her an apology and maybe at least a thank you. I really misjudged that weird little human._ This was actually a bit of a new feeling for Penguinmon. He was used to being independent and not needing or relying on others, but without even asking someone else had taken him in and offered to take care of him for seemingly no reason at all. The girl wasn't a Digidestined, he was not her partner, but none of that seemed to matter.

He found the room where the running water sound was coming from and went inside. It was very hot, the air was humid and steamy, and the sound of water was coming from behind a curtain in the room.

"Amanda?" he asked.

"Oh, Penguinmon, I'm glad you're awake," Amanda said, her voice echoing in the small chamber behind the curtain. "My family's out doing stuff. I stayed behind. Don't mind me, I'm just taking a shower."

_Good, _he thought, _I guess now's as good a time as any to thank her._ "So, listen," he began. "I just wanted to thank—"

"What?" she asked, her voice distorted and gurgling. "I can't hear you!"

"Oh. Here, let me get this curtain out of the way." And he pulled the curtain back. "So, like I was saying—"

_"EEEEEEEEK!"_

"Wow, that water looks pretty hot," he said casually.

_"What the heck are you doing?!" _she shrieked, covering herself.

"Uh, well, I was going to thank—"

_"Shut the curtain you idiot! Shut it now, shut it now, shut it now!"_

"Okay, okay, jeez!" he growled, shutting the curtain, his ears ringing from the loudness of her voice. _Unbelievable! Some days you can't even be a nice guy!_ he thought, grumbling to himself as he made his way back to Amanda's room.

* * *

A few minutes later she stormed back into her room, clad in a bathrobe and her face bright red, her teeth gritted in fury.

"What the heck is the matter with you?!" she shouted.

"Me? What about you?!" he shot back. "I was just coming in to talk to you, what's the big deal?"

"The big deal? _Mon Dieu_, I can't believe my digimon saw me naked!"

He blinked. "Naked? You… oh your covering!" he said, his face lighting up.

"Covering?" her curiosity now taking hold. "You mean my clothes? Don't other digimon wear clothes?"

"Not really. Well Gabumon do. They're really embarrassed to be seen without the fur pelts they wear. I'm sorry, Amanda, I didn't realize humans were like Gabumon."

"That's… kind of a weird way to put it." She thought this over. "Okay, wait, why do Gabumon wear fur pelts?"

"I've seen one without a pelt and trust me, there's a reason. But, if it helps, you're much prettier than a Gabumon without your pelt!"

"Oh, well thank you!" she said, momentarily flattered. "Do you really think— wait a minute, I don't want to be complimented on how I look naked by my digimon!" She paused and got a dreamy look in her eyes. "Maybe by a hot guy, though… hmm… mmm…"

"Uh, Amanda?"

"Oh, right. I'm still mad at you, you little pervert!"

"I'm not a pervert! What's a pervert?"

She smacked her forehead. "Okay, listen, it's not okay because…" she peered down at him, suddenly looking him over from different angles. He shifted uncomfortably under her gaze. "Wait a minute. Um, Penguinmon, you're… a _boy_ digimon, right?"

"Yyyes," he said slowly.

"Ah ha!" she said. "So, you know the difference between boys and girls!"

"Sure. Boys are more masculine and have deeper voices, and girls are more feminine and have higher voices."

"And?"

He looked confused. "And nothing. That's it."

"No, no, I mean… er, you know," she said, blushing, "…physically?"

"Physically? Uh, no. Gender is all about your personality."

She blinked. "Penguinmon, you… you do have… um… do you have a…"

He watched her as she got quieter, her speech more broken, and her face grew redder and redder. "A what? A beak, flippers, a taste for herring? What is it?!" he demanded impatiently.

"Let's… let's try this again," she said. "Okay, Penguinmon, where do babies come from?"

"Eggs," he answered immediately.

"Well, yes, since you're a bird."

"I'm not a bird, I'm a bird digimon."

"Okay, but like… other digimon babies come from…?"

"Eggs," he said again.

"Wait, really?"

"Yes," he said, looking amused. "Oh, you're kinda cute, not knowing where babies come from!"

"I am not cute and I know where babies come from!" she shouted. "Also, never mind that first thing because I _am_ cute!"

"Hold on… okay, so… humans don't come from eggs, then?"

"No, we come from… er…" Penguinmon looked at her expectantly. "Look, we're getting off subject… humans don't want everyone to see them naked because of… things… um, parts that we want to keep private."

"Interesting!" he said. "What kind of parts?"

"Oh for the love of—" she left the room and returned with a large, old biology textbook from her parents' high school days. "Okay, just look at these pictures on this chapter on human reproduction. While you do that, I'm going to get dressed. And do not peek this time or I swear I'll clobber you!"

"Okay, but I'm not a human, so I don't see why—"

"Neither do I, but I'm forbidding it until I figure it out!" she snapped.

"All right, all right," he relented, looking at the textbook. "Huh… Amanda, can you show me which of these you have again? I'm trying to figure out if you're a male or a fema—" and then Amanda hit him with a pillow.

* * *

"Don't you have a larger backpack than this?" Penguinmon asked, his voice muffled from inside the backpack that Amanda was carrying. "It's dark and cramped in here!"

"I'm sorry Penguinmon, but I can't let people see you in public, and this is the only way to smuggle you around."

"Okay, but what is all this other stuff in here?"

"Computer parts and tools, mostly. It's no picnic for me either, you know. With you and all that stuff, it's really heavy! I know you're not a big fan of that tuna, but I put a few tins of sardines in there for you, by the way."

The avian was quiet for a few moments before saying, "Thanks, Amanda. That's nice of you."

"You're welcome," she said. "Now be quiet, we're almost downtown and I can't be seen talking to my backpack."

"Okay, but can you explain where we're going again?"

"We're going to Papa's auto shop. He's a mechanic."

"What's a mechanic?"

"Someone who fixes cars."

"What's a car?"

"It's a form of transportation."

"What's transportation?"

"It's a way of moving yourself or things from one place to another. Like a car, or a big animal like a horse."

"Oh, so I guess you're my transportation!" he said. "Just like a horse!"

She jerked her backpack to the side irritably, causing the contents inside to smack Penguinmon, which caused him to squawk at her to be more careful. "Ooops!" she said, a smug smile on her face. "I'm so sorry. I tripped. Heh heh heh."

"Right, sure," he grumbled. "So this has to do with that Perkins guy?"

"Right," she said, recalling the conversation from the previous evening…

* * *

"Amanda, we think we've figured out a suitable punishment for you," her father said. The family was at the dinner table, not long after Amanda had smuggled Penguinmon inside and gotten dried off from her encounter in the woods.

"Wait, still?" she cried. "But I didn't—"

"Look, just be quiet and listen. You're not getting out of being punished for what you did the other night and you certainly could use some responsibility after sneaking out to go look for bear crap in the woods."

"Oooh, you got bu~usted, Sis!" Philipe intoned.

"Shut up, you little weasel!" she hissed at him.

"Amanda, don't tell your brother to shut up!" her mother said.

"Haha, busted aga~ain, Sis!"

"Phil, shut up," her father growled. "Listen, young lady, you know Mr. Perkins, of course."

Amanda remembered that the last time she had seen Mr. Perkins, he'd been chasing after the Dogmon they'd seen emerge through the portal. She was actually a bit shocked to hear her father mention his name.

"Yes," she replied, hoping her expression didn't look too startled. "He runs the computer repair shop downtown, I get some cool things from him every so often. And I helped him repair the computers after school yesterday, thank you very much!"

"Noted," he said noncommittally. "Getting to the point, he apparently was attacked by an animal—"

"The bear!" Philipe exclaimed in fear. _"Mon Dieu_, the bear ate Mr. Perkins!"

"For the last time, there is no bear!"

"Wait a minute," Amanda interjected, "if that's true, then why am I in trouble for going into the woods?"

"Everyone just shut up!" Mr. Giroux bellowed.

"Dear, please!" Mrs. Giroux said harshly, giving him a stern, reproachful look.

"Er… sorry, _ma belle,"_ he said, momentarily put in his place. "Look, here's what happened: some animal, a wolf or a dog or something bit Mr. Perkins on the leg."

"Oh no! Is he okay?" Amanda cried, genuinely concerned (especially since she knew it was no dog, but a digimon that had attacked him).

"Well, mostly. His leg is hurt pretty badly, though, and he'll need some help while it's bandaged. He called me up last night and told me how helpful you were with the computers and asked if you might be able to help him out with a few things. I think this would be a good idea since it's making good use of your talents—"

"—Instead of hunting dumb old digimon," Philipe said.

"Phil, I swear, one more word out of you," Mr. Giroux growled, leaving his threat implied. "So, yes, that's the deal. I want you to go talk to Mr. Perkins tomorrow. For at least a week, or until he recovers, you're his new assistant. You are going to fix computers, help him move things, whatever. If you're finished, you can go play or do whatever you wish. So, is that a good deal, or do you want to just be grounded?"

"I'll help Mr. Perkins, sure!" she said happily.

"Uh, you seem a bit eager to be punished," Mr. Giroux said. "Maybe this is too lenient—"

"Too late, already said yes! Okay, thanks for dinner, I'm going to eat the rest in my room, good night!" she said, piling the last bits of meat and potatoes onto her plate and carrying it to her room (to feed Penguinmon).

* * *

"Papa left me a note this morning. He wants me to come by his shop on my way to talk to Mr. Perkins."

"Why?"

"I don't know," she replied. "I can't figure out what he wants."

The two of them walked up Main Street, moving past the shops and small businesses. The town was well over a century old and some of the brick buildings had been standing since the town's founding. Penguinmon expressed curiosity about what he was missing so Amanda unzipped the backpack just a little so he could peek through.

"Hey, what's that over there?" he whispered.

"I thought I told you not to talk!"

"There's no one around, come on, tell me!"

"Okay, fine," she relented. They were passing through the town square, right in front of the small, but stately, City Hall. "This is the town square. When there's a big celebration or festival or event, everyone comes together here. They usually sell food and play music and stuff."

"Neat. What do those signs say? 'Roxanne Day 2000?' What's that about?"

"Our town was founded at the end of June, so we celebrate every year. It's kind of lame, but it's the biggest festival of the year and at least there's a lot of good food. And we all gather around the big statue of Roxanne de Venois. She was married to a guy who ran a brewery that served a lot of loggers, but when he died, she took over the business. It got really successful and the town sort of grew up around it."

"Neat! Can I come?"

"Uh… if I can think of a good way to smuggle you in, sure!" she said, though she really didn't see how that was possible.

"Wait a minute, Amanda. I hear people!"

"Yeah," she said, hearing the noise herself. There was a sizable crowd gathering not far from the town square at Courtney's Cakes, a bakery that specialized in… well, cakes. "Might want to check this out."

Just then, there was a loud gurgling sound that emerged from her backpack. "Holy cow, Penguinmon, was that you?!"

"Yeah, sorry… I think all that beef, plus that rich 'omelet' thing you made for breakfast did a number on me."

"Well, keep it down, and no more talking while I'm around so many people."

"I'll try," he said, even as his belly rumbled again.

She lugged him over to where the people had gathered. The crowd was dense, but she was small enough to force her way through and make her way to the front, where she saw that the big front window of Courtney's Cakes had been smashed in and the large display cakes in the front had been ravaged. Bits of cake and icing were everywhere, as were shards of glass. In a repeat of the day before, the sheriff was talking to Mr. Hamilton of Animal Control alongside the store owner, Courtney McCulloch. She gasped when she saw what Mr. Hamilton was holding: a clump of white fur.

_Mojyamon!_ she thought. She turned her backpack to allow Penguinmon to peek through the zipper and heard him gasp as well. After their harrowing encounter yesterday, neither one of them could mistake that white fur for anything else.

"What am I going to do?!" McCulloch cried, her eyes welling up in tears. "I need to get the shop up and running in time for Roxanne Day, and now look at it!"

"Don't worry, Courtney," the sheriff was saying. "We'll all support your business and it looks like the window display and some cakes were the only things destroyed. At least you can still make cakes."

Then another voice from the crowd shouted, "We're with you, Courtney! But in the meantime, what did this? What did that white fur come from?"

"We're still figuring that out," Mr. Hamilton said weakly.

"That's two businesses in a row, Will, what's going to happen if this animal is still on the loose when the town festival happens?"

"Okay, okay, everyone calm down," the sheriff said, waving his arms, trying to mollify the uneasy crowd.

Amanda felt a tap on her shoulder. "Exciting way to start off your vacation, eh?" said a familiar voice. She turned to see Yvonne standing there.

"Yvonne!" she exclaimed, then momentarily had a moment of panic as she remembered Penguinmon was there in her backpack. "W-what're you doing here?"

"Nothing good on TV, so I decided to check this out. They just mentioned it on the news. But hey, glad I ran into you. Want to go over to your house? I'll watch some anime with you."

She brightened. "Yeah! That sounds— no, wait, I forgot, I have to go see Papa and then start my new job over at Perkins' Parts."

"Wait, job?" she asked. "What the heck, are you allowed to have a job? You're 10!"

"Hey, I am a computer expert, ya know!" she said proudly.

"And so modest," Yvonne remarked, rolling her eyes. "Come on, Mr. Perkins is a weirdo, skip that and come hang out with me."

"He's not a weirdo and I can't just skip out on it!"

"Seriously? You're skipping the first day of summer vacation to hang out with the bald Newfie?"

"Yvonne!" Amanda cried, making a face. "Look, I… it's my responsibility, I already said I would, so don't act like this! I just can't hang out with you today!"

"Whoa," said another familiar voice, "are you two having a fight?"

Amanda whirled around to find herself face to face with Leon.

_Aw crap, not now! _she thought._ Not with Penguinmon in my backpack!_

"Hey Leon," Yvonne said, her voice notably sweeter. "What're you doing here?"

"My dad and I came to buy some feed for our animals. While they're loading it into the truck, I wandered over here to check this out. I can't believe there's really some animal on the loose. This is the most exciting thing to happen to this town in a while, right?"

_You have no idea,_ Amanda thought.

"So, what're you two troublemakers up to?" he asked, flashing a smile.

_Oh my god he's soooo cute, and he called me a troublemaker, like I'm some cool rebel or something like that! Does he think I'm cool after all? Maybe it was good I got into trouble for that stuff with the computers. Should I act like I did it on purpose? Wait, crap, he asked a question! What do I say?!_

"Oh, you know me… just whatever," Yvonne said nonchalantly.

"How about you, Amanda?" he asked. Then he squinted and leaned in slightly closer to her. "Hey… are those different glasses?"

_He noticed how I look!_ she thought, her cheeks burning at his proximity and her heart beating faster. _Okay, Amanda, you can do this… you're a genius, so just pull yourself together and say something intelligent!_

"Huhuhuhuhuh!" she laughed, in a manner unflatteringly comparable to that of Beavis and Butthead.

_You dummy! Use real words!_

"Uhhh… yeah! They're old! They're my old glasses! I lost my normal pair in the woods."

"Wait, you went to the woods?" Yvonne asked. "What for?"

_Okay, time for the same story that Mama and Papa bought!_ "I went to see if I could find the animal that attacked Wong's Wok yesterday. I fell and, well, I just lost them! Haha, that's p-pretty embarrassing, isn't it?"

"Wow, that's really brave of you," Leon said. "What were you looking for?"

"Oh you know, some fur or droppings—" She stopped in mid-sentence and winced as both Leon and Yvonne made a disgusted face.

"Wait, you mean… you were looking for… crap?" Leon asked, eyeing her in exactly the way she did _not_ want to be eyed.

"I-it's not like that, Leon!" she protested. "I mean, it's not like I went out scooping it up or anything! I wouldn't do something gross like that!"

And it was then, seemingly on cue, that something happened. Something terrible and tragic and mortifying and timed so badly that it couldn't have been planned even by her worst enemy. Inside her backpack, Penguinmon was barely following the conversation because his digestive tract was undergoing gastroenterological Armageddon. Though he was doing his best to obey Amanda and not make a sound, the pressure was building and he finally had no choice but to let it out.

_FRRRRRRRRT!_

The entire crowd of concerned Roxanne citizens turned and stared at her at the sound of what surely had been the loudest public fart in the small town's history. Since nobody suspected she had an intelligent digital avian in her backpack, the immediate suspicion fell on her. A complete and utter silence fell on the crowd and all eyes were laid squarely on the poor, unfortunate, and totally innocent young Amanda Fabienne Giroux.

Her face turning bright red and her gaze downcast, she barely squeaked out, "Excuse me," before hurrying off, leaving Yvonne, the crowd, and the handsomest boy in the 5th grade far behind.

"Uh, so, Yvonne," Leon said after she had gone and the crowd returned to questioning the sheriff and Mr. Hamilton, "it'll take my dad a while to finish with the feed. Wanna go grab a snack?"

Yvonne kept her cool. "Well, now that you mention it, I could go for something sweet…"

* * *

"I can't believe it!" Amanda cried. "I can't believe he thinks I did that! Right in front of everyone!"

She and Penguinmon were in a narrow, secluded alleyway about a block away from the cake shop. She had set the backpack down and was slowly banging her head against the side of a brick building.

"I'm so sorry, Amanda!" Penguinmon said for what must have been the tenth time. "I just couldn't hold it in!"

"My life is over!"

"It's not so bad. Hey, everyone farts, right?"

"Not in public! And not girls in front of their crush!"

"Crush?" Penguinmon asked. "Oh! I get it! You're attracted to that male human back there!" he said, momentarily proud that he'd figured something out. "Does that mean you want to do that thing you showed me in the book with him?"

"What?"

"Do you want to breed with him?"

"Oh my god! N-no, ew, I— Well, not now, I mean, I'm _ten!"_ she sputtered.

"So, if you're too young, what does it matter? Do you think it'll hurt your chances of him seeing you naked later?"

"Just shut up!" she screamed, her face turning redder and redder by the moment. _"Mon Dieu,_ could you be any more embarrassing?!"

Just then the two were interrupted by a low, wheezing sound. They both stopped and turned to look down the alleyway and saw Dogmon standing there laughing heartily at the two of them.

"A Dogmon?" Penguinmon asked. "I guess that's one more digimon here."

"Th-that's the Dogmon that attacked Mr. Perkins!" she cried, backing up fearfully.

"That human sure was weak!" Dogmon laughed, his voice gruff, but oddly high-pitched. "One little bite and he didn't want to play any more hide and seek! Maybe you two would make better playmates!"

Penguinmon stepped forward, placing himself between Amanda and Dogmon defensively. _Okay, Dogmon may be a Champion,_ he thought, _but at least he's not much bigger than I am. Still, Dogmon are known for being terrible practical jokers. If he decides to play a joke on us, we could really get hurt!_

"We don't want any trouble," Penguinmon said.

"I'm not trouble! I'm fun! Tons of fun!" Dogmon said. "I had a lot of fun smashing some windows in those human houses with rocks earlier! Oh, and chasing the little humans near that place where I came to this world! They sure run fast for having such little legs!"

"Leave them alone!" Amanda shouted. "That's not funny, breaking people's windows and scaring some little kids! Why don't you pick on someone your own size!"

"Well… _you're _actually even bigger than my size," Dogmon said menacingly. "How about a game of Hot Potato?"

Amanda blinked. "Hot Potato? That… that doesn't sound so dangerous…"

"It's fun! Lots of fun!" Dogmon said. Then he reached into a previously unseen pocket in his soft, malleable hide and pulled out a black, cartoonishly-oversized bomb. He then pulled out a match and lit the fuse. "Okay, time to play!" he said, tossing it to Penguinmon.

"Gah!" he shouted as he caught it. "What the heck is _wrong_ with you?!" he shouted as he tossed it back to Dogmon.

"Your turn, human!" Dogmon said, tossing it higher, this time at Amanda.

She caught it and gawked at it fearfully. _"No!"_ she screamed, passing it back to Dogmon.

"Come on, we're supposed to pass it in a circle, no fair ganging up!" Dogmon growled, and passed it back to Penguinmon.

"Quit playing around!" he yelled, passing it back.

And so it went for a few more passes, between Dogmon, Amanda, and Penguinmon. All the while, the fuse on the bomb grew ever shorter, ever closer to exploding. Finally, as the fuse was nearly gone, Amanda suddenly had a flash of inspiration. Instead of passing the bomb back to the devious, snickering hound, she lifted the lid of a nearby garbage can in the alley and stuffed it inside, clamping the lid on top of it. She then sat on the lid to seal it in tighter.

"Hey, no fair, no fair, you're supposed to pass it!" Dogmon protested.

"Amanda!" Penguinmon cried as he ran to help her.

But before he could get to her, the bomb exploded, and the force of the explosion blew her off the garbage can, sending her into the air before crashing back to the ground, still sitting on the garbage can lid. She wore a shocked expression that only grew more mortified when a torrent of garbage rained down on her, splattering her clothes and hair with foul-smelling refuse.

Dogmon stared at this scene for a few moments before erupting in a huge fit of laughter. He rolled around on the ground, holding his belly as he laughed. "Oh that's too much! Too funny, way too funny, that's even better than getting blown up!"

"Why you-!" Penguinmon growled, running over to Dogmon as he staggered to his feet. "Take this! _Super Slap!"_

Putting all his power into his flipper, he slapped Dogmon as hard as he could. However, Dogmon's rubbery face only spun around, winding his head up tight like a rubber band before untwisting and returning to its natural shape, making a helicopter sound as it did.

"Oh, a wise guy, eh?" Dogmon growled. "Of course you realize, this means war!" He reached into his spacious body and pulled out a gigantic red boxing glove. Before Penguinmon could react, Dogmon socked him upside the head, causing him to fly back. When he looked up, he saw tweeting blue birds flying in a circle over his head. Only they weren't blue birds, but tiny versions of Dogmon wearing poorly-constructed blue bird costumes. He waved them away and saw them actually fly off as he got to his feet.

"Stupid Dogmon and their stupid cartoon powers," Penguinmon grumbled.

"Well, you two are fun, but I've gotta go! There's still lots more to see, and lots more people to play with! So long!" Dogmon said, and then he was gone, dashing off so fast that he left a Dogmon-shaped dust cloud that hung in the air for a moment before dissipating.

Penguinmon glared after Dogmon before he remembered his friend. "Amanda!" he cried. To his surprise, Amanda was already standing up, silently and diligently brushing the garbage from her body with as much dignity as she could muster.

"Amanda? Are you all right?"

"I'm fine," she said quietly, though when he looked up at her face, he could see she was holding back tears.

"Amanda..." he said, feeling guilty. "I'm… I'm sorry I couldn't protect you…"

"You did your best. Now that's enough," she said, taking a deep breath. "Let's go visit Papa before he starts to worry."

* * *

The auto-body shop where Wesley Giroux worked was a familiar place to her. It always smelled of motor oil, gasoline, and other car-related smells. The men who worked there were big, hardy men in dirty t-shirts and oil-stained jumpsuits. As a little girl, she was fascinated with all the big machines and the way the men all worked together to make the cars work by tightening things, replacing things, and doing all sorts of things with all the gizmos that filled the garage. As a toddler, she used to pick up her father's tools at home and try to fit inside his jumpsuit, drawing laughter from her parents.

Then one day, when she was six years old, she accompanied her mother to the garage to bring her father his lunch that he'd left at home. She'd wandered off and evaded detection from the other mechanics there and climbed into the open hood of a car, dragging a heavy toolbox with her. Her horrified parents found her a few minutes later and lectured her about how dangerous it was if she didn't know what she was doing. And that was when she indignantly insisted she did so know what she was doing. And when her father checked the car a few moments later, he found that his little girl, only six years old, had detected the faulty catalytic converter, removed it from the engine, and replaced it herself, fixing the problem.

It was a very quiet ride back home that day.

"Hm? Well, if it isn't Little Miss Motorhead!" said one of the mechanics there, using the nickname she'd earned from that day.

"Hi, Richie!" she said. She knew every mechanic who worked there, and they in turn knew her. "I'm here to see Papa."

"Sure thing, he's been waiting," he said. "Hey, boss, your daughter's here! We finally giving her a job here? She's gotta take over the family business sooner or later, eh?"

"Ha ha, Richie. Tell her to wait in the office and then get back to work," Mr. Giroux called from his spot underneath a Toyota.

"You heard him," Richie said. And then, adding quietly, "He's in a bad mood. Watch yourself, Little Miss Motorhead."

Amanda nodded and went to wait in the office.

"Hey, Amanda, I know you're having a bad day too," Penguinmon said, whispering from the backpack. "But don't worry. It's going to be okay."

She sighed. "Thanks for saying that. I hope you're right."

A few minutes later, Mr. Giroux walked in the office, shutting the door behind him.

"You're a little late, but thank you for stopping by, Amanda. I… _Mon Dieu,_ Amanda, what happened to you?"

"I want dumpster diving," she lied.

"What? Why?" he demanded.

"I heard someone threw out some old machine parts, I thought I could use them," she replied.

"You're going to work in a computer parts store, you can work with all the parts you want there!"

"But those parts aren't mine, so I thought I could—"

"No, you know what, never mind. If Mr. Perkins minds, then go home and get cleaned up. If not, then fine, it's not my problem."

Amanda rolled her eyes. "Okay, what do you want? I came all the way over here before going to meet Mr. Perkins, after all."

"Two things," Mr. Giroux said. "First, just… look, I don't know Bradley all that well, so… you know, if he tries anything funny—"

"Ew, Papa!" she cried, making a face. "He's a nice man! Just because he's from Newfoundland and talks a little different doesn't make Mr. Perkins a creep. I would think _you_ would respect that of all people, Papa."

Mr. Giroux looked down. He certainly wasn't the only person from Quebec with French as a first language in town, but there weren't that many, and he knew that sometimes customers or others made fun of his slight accent. Not that it particularly bothered him, but Amanda had him dead to rights when it came to judging people.

"Well, I just want you to be careful," he said. "And then there's the other thing… that animal that attacked the cake shop downtown."

"Yeah, I passed it on the way here," she said.

"Yes, well… it's just… Amanda, please don't go into the woods, okay?"

"Oh come on, so I fell in the river, I'm sorry about losing my glasses!"

"I don't care about the damned glasses, I care about you!" he said, standing up suddenly. They both stared at each other in silence. "Yesterday, when your mother and I couldn't find you…"

"Papa, come on, you're embarrassing me."

He went over to her and hugged her. It wasn't like her father to be this emotional, this distressed, and it made her a little uncomfortable, and a bit ashamed that she had put him through such worry, now that it was obvious how much it had gotten to him.

_"Tu es ma petite,"_ he said. "You're my only daughter, my little girl, and you're so amazing with all the things you do. But if there really is an animal or something dangerous out there, then don't make me worry about you. I love you and I want you to be safe."

She sighed and hugged him back. "I love you too, Papa. I'll try not to make you worry." To herself, she thought, _But only Penguinmon, Mr. Perkins, and I know what's going on in this town. And we might be the only ones who can stop it. I want to protect you too, Papa, and that's why I won't give up, even if I have to keep all this a secret from you for now._

"Okay," Mr. Giroux said. "Now go see Mr. Perkins." He smiled at her. "Go make me proud, you little genius."

* * *

"Well, there's me new worker," Mr. Perkins said as Amanda walked through the front door. "How ya gettin' on, dear?"

"I'm fine," she said. Then she noticed his bandaged leg and the fact that he was on crutches. "Oh no, are you all right?!"

"I'm fine, I'm fine," he said. "But what about you? By tunder, ya look like ya got run over by a garbage truck. Sometin' happen to ya on the way over here?"

Amanda made a face. "Dogmon," she replied. "I guess now we've both got a personal score to settle."

"Well, leave off that fer a bit. I got sometin' to show ya."

He led her up the stairs of the shop, past the glass displays of the computer parts and software to the second floor. Amanda's eyes lit up when she saw the room.

"Wow!" she breathed. "Just look at all this stuff!"

The room was littered with computer parts, and a great many computers and monitors were strewn across the room, their covers removed, their wires sticking out and their screens showing various displays. The air was warm and the sound of dozens of cooling fans humming away at different speeds made her quickly go from one to the next to see what Mr. Perkins was doing with them.

"Now, I know yer excited, my dear," Mr. Perkins said, "but that ain't what I wanted to show ya. When I got home from the hospital last night, I looked at all these computers and I found sometin' strange." He beckoned Amanda over to one of the computers and pointed at the screen. There on the screen was a single file, a program with a familiar gibberish title: ~$eb5sh0%4.

"That's the program that was on the school's computers! And it was on my own computer too!"

"Well, I looked at every one of 'em, and I found the same ting, Amanda," he said. "Some of these have been here for a week, some for only a day, but the same ting is on every single one of 'em. But I got one computer in here from some guy in the next town over and there was notin' on it. If I'm right about this, Amanda, then there's only one ting I can come up with: this program is on every computer in town."

"In our town?"

"Yeah. But not anywhere else. Otherwise it'd be on that fella's from the town over."

"Just our town, just our town…" Amanda said to herself, thinking that over. And then suddenly she remembered something she'd heard not two days ago: _"__Since you think you're somehow involved with this, I'll give you what you want. But just be prepared for… unforeseen consequences."_

"Oh my god," she said, feeling woozy. She staggered and had to sit down. "**I** caused this. This is my fault!"

"What? No, listen, Amanda, you didn't do anyting to these computers—"

"No, you don't understand!" she cried. "You see, that night I was trying to stop an evil digimon on the internet named Diaboromon. When I tried to stop him with a program I wrote, he said 'Since you think you're somehow involved with this, I'll give you what you want. But just be prepared for unforeseen consequences.'" She stared at him. "This is what he meant. This program is something Diaboromon created to get revenge on me for trying to stop him! It runs secretly on computers to pull digimon from the Digital World and bring them here to Roxanne!"

"So that's what happened!" Penguinmon exclaimed from inside her backpack.

Everyone froze. "Amanda," Mr. Perkins said slowly, "what the heck was that?"

She sighed. "Well, you might as well know," she said, and opened her backpack. She lifted Penguinmon up and held him out. "Mr. Perkins, this is Penguinmon."

Mr. Perkins smiled. "Oh, by tunder an' Moses, that's pretty cute. I coulda sworn I heard it talk, though," he said.

"Huh?" she asked, and then saw that Penguinmon was holding perfectly still, his expression blank as he pretended to be a stuffed toy. "Penguinmon knock it off, you don't have to pretend in front of him!"

"Oh thank Goddramon, my eyes were drying out!" he said, relaxing as Amanda set him down.

"Sweet Jesus, it talks!" Mr. Perkins shouted, holding up one of his crutches defensively.

"Trust me, he can make _other_ sounds too," Amanda muttered, glaring down at Penguinmon, who grinned sheepishly. "Now listen, Mr. Perkins, this is Penguinmon. Yes, he is a digimon, but he's not dangerous. He's really nice! He saved my life yesterday!"

Penguinmon looked down, modestly. "Oh, not really, I—"

"Wait, wait," Mr. Perkins said, "saved ya from what, exactly?"

"Oh. Uhhhm…" And then she had to explain the whole story about confronting Mojyamon and nearly getting killed, but then getting rescued from him by Penguinmon. All that was enough to make Mr. Perkins need to sit down, especially when she got to the part about Penguinmon staying at her house.

"Jeez, your parents must've lost their minds, by?" Mr. Perkins said, laughing nervously.

"Uh, yeah, see, that's the thing," Amanda said uneasily. "I haven't told them."

"What? Well we better call 'em over here—"

"No!" she cried. "We have to keep Penguinmon a secret! If someone, like the government, found out about him, they might take him away! He's my friend, and I have to protect him!"

Penguinmon smiled. He had no idea what she was protecting him from, but it was still nice to have someone else looking out for him, and once again he regretted that he had botched thanking her earlier that morning.

"Okay, Amanda, I get all that, but if we don't do sometin' soon, these digmon tings are gonna overrun the town. Won't be much of a secret by then."

Amanda sat and began to think. "Okay… we've got two problems: digimon are here now, causing trouble for the town, and more of them might come because of this program on the computers here in Roxanne."

She rubbed her temples and closed her eyes, furiously thinking about how to solve the problem, putting her keen mind to work. Finally, she opened her eyes and her expression lit up.

"I've got it!" she said. "Mr. Perkins, I hate to ask, but I'll need some parts around the shop. I'll also need some metal pipes or some tubing, a car battery, and some transmitters!"

Confused, but trusting, Mr. Perkins helped her out. After a few minutes of watching his human friend dash about the room, Penguinmon began to yawn. "Uh, is this going to take long, Amanda?" he asked.

Amanda seemingly didn't hear him, she was now totally engrossed in collecting the parts she'd asked for and clearing a space to work on one of the tables.

"I've seen her get like this before, by," Mr. Perkins said. "Listen, uh, Mr. Digimon," he said awkwardly, "this might take a while. I got a TV here. Why don't you watch it while I help her out?"

He switched on the TV and Penguinmon, fascinated with the images on the small box, sat and watched it. He didn't know what he was watching, but listened as the authoritative voice explained what was on the screen. A short animation showing a pair of atoms was on the screen and the voice explained, "Often atoms form bonds through covalent bonding. This occurs when an atom does not have enough electrons to fill and stabilize an electron shell. In this case, two hydrogen atoms each have one electron, but share with each other to stabilize their electron shell. By sharing their energy, they become the much more stable molecule made up of two atoms…"

* * *

"Penguinmon," a voice called. "Penguinmon, wake up!"

"Hm?" he said groggily. He found himself still sitting in his chair in front of the TV. He'd apparently been out for a few hours, judging by how much the light shining through the window had moved across the floor. "Amanda? What's going on?"

"I've just invented something that's going to solve all our problems!" she said happily. "Get a load of this!"

Held in her hands was a long metal tube, wires running through it, with a large, conical piece at the end. It also had a switch (from an old-fashioned vacuum cleaner) on it and wires that ran to a car battery she'd strapped to her back.

"Hey, great!... What is it?"

* * *

**Giroux Gadget #2: The Banstick, Mark I**

This device is powered by a car battery and is capable of sending a signal through the powerful transmitter on the end. It is fairly light and easy to carry and wield. Designed to be activated with a simple flick of the On/Off switch at the start, it is a weapon with one purpose: to send dangerous digimon back to the Digital World.

Amanda's Notes: "Since the program we found on all the computers here in Roxanne brings digimon _to_ the town, I reasoned that reversing the frequency it creates should have the opposite effect. The residual energy of the dimensional tunneling found on each teleported digimon's electromagnetic signature can be reversed and they will then appear back in the Digital World where they first crossed over. Since sending unwanted digimon away is a lot like getting rid of forum trolls, I decided to adopt the expression 'Hit them with the ban stick!' to name this device."

* * *

"So, you just reversed that signal on the computers?" Penguinmon asked.

"That was actually the toughest part, but Mr. Perkins and I got it done with a little programming magic!" she said, smiling at him.

"Well, to be honest, Amanda, I was mostly followin' yer lead. This is all a little over my head."

"No need to be modest," she said encouragingly. "Now that we've built it, though, it's time to test it. And I have just the thing!" She reached into her shirt pocket and pulled out a small bag with some very familiar white fur.

"That's from Mojyamon!" Penguinmon exclaimed.

"Exactly! I got it from outside Wong's Wok yesterday. It should have the residual signal on it, so, if we reverse it…"

Rather than discuss it any further, they all watched as she placed it on the table and turned on the Banstick. She touched the end of it to the fur, holding it there for a few seconds before it began to glow, electricity began to crackle over it and it suddenly vanished in a dull flash.

"Where did it go?" Penguinmon asked.

"Like I was saying, back to the Digital World!" she replied. "We'll figure out how to rid the program from the town and stop digimon from coming here, but in the meantime we've got some invaders to deal with. There's Mojyamon, Dogmon, those Gizamon—"

"And Penguinmon," Mr. Perkins added.

"W-what?" Amanda asked.

"Well, he got pulled here too, right? This way you can send him home."

"Oh," she said quietly. "Well, Penguinmon, he's… he's right. If you want to go home…"

"Gee, let me think, live alone on a giant block of ice, or be comfortable in a nice house with someone who actually wants me around. Hmm, tough choice, but I'll take the second option." He thought for a moment. "Er, if that's okay with you, Amanda."

She smiled, now once again holding back tears, though this time they were of happiness. "Mm hmm," she managed to say.

Mr. Perkins rolled his eyes. "Okay, I'm glad you've got yer little friend settled, but we still need to worry about the other ones that ain't so friendly."

"Right. And that's where Penguinmon and I come in!" she said. "We're going to find them and send them packing ourselves!"

"What?!" both Perkins and Penguinmon shouted.

"W-well, how else are we supposed to do this?" she asked.

"We can give that crazy ting over to Will Hamilton and let him deal with it, for one!" Mr. Perkins said.

"I'd have to agree with Mr. Perkins, Amanda," Penguinmon said. "Even if we have to tell him about digimon, about me—"

"No!" she cried forcefully. "If we blow your cover, I know they'll never let you stay. And besides, this… this was my fault. It's only right that I fix the problem."

Penguinmon sighed. "Well, how exactly are we going to do that? We don't have a great track record so far."

"Well, we don't have to beat them," she explained. "We just have to get them distracted or stunned for five seconds. The Banstick needs five seconds to complete the reversed signal. If you can hold their attention or something for that long, then I can hit them with it and send them back!"

"That's… still not that easy," he said.

"Look, maybe I should do this," Mr. Perkins said. "I'm the adult here—"

"With an injured leg," she reminded him. He sighed, remembering the injury and realizing that her mind was made up and there wasn't much he could do about this at this point.

"Come on, Penguinmon, we can do this! I know we can!"

Penguinmon sighed. "How can I refuse?" he said, shrugging the best he could without having shoulders.

Mr. Perkins didn't look happy, but he got up and retrieved something from a bag of supplies he had on hand and handed it to Amanda. "Take this," he said. "It's pepper spray. If tings turn badly, don't try and be a hero. Just give 'em a spray and get out of there. You're not one of those Digidestined kids, so don't go actin' like one, by?"

She looked down. "We'll see about that," she muttered.

* * *

A short while later after a brief lunch mostly made up of canned sardines (which fortunately, Penguinmon turned out to greatly enjoy), the two of them were back in the woods, slowly and carefully treading uphill and going from tree to tree to provide cover.

"We're getting close, Penguinmon," Amanda whispered as she checked the Digimon Detector. "The signal shows that he's just up ahead."

"That seems right. We're getting closer to where we met up with him last time." Penguinmon sighed. "Are you sure we shouldn't just leave Mojyamon to Animal Control?"

"No, and it's not just for their sake," she answered. "If they meet up with Mojyamon, there are only two real outcomes: either he hurts them, or worse... or they hurt him, or worse."

"You're awfully concerned with his safety considering he tried to kill us, ya know."

"It's not his fault that he's here," she said. "He's going by Digital World rules, so maybe we can't blame him."

"Nice of you to say, but there's something seriously wrong with a guy who'd kill and eat a defenseless little girl."

"Yeah, well, we'll see who's defenseless," she said, patting the Banstick slung across her back. The two of them went a little further and then stopped in the middle of a small clearing. The birdsong was strangely absent and a distinct musky scent was in the air. Penguinmon's feathers ruffled and the hairs on the back of Amanda's neck stood straight up.

"I don't get it," she whispered. "He should be here, the Digimon Detector says he's right here!" Her eyes went wide and, just in time, she yelled, "Penguinmon, move!" and ducked out of the way. A second later, Mojyamon crashed down, smashing the ground where they'd been standing.

"I get it!" Penguinmon said. "He was waiting in the trees, trying to ambush us!"

"I heard you two coming a little while ago," Mojyamon said. "I climbed the trees and decided to wait for you to come by. Though in your case, human," he added, "I could smell you before I heard you."

Amanda rolled her eyes. "Yesterday tuna, today garbage… this is not a good week for me, olfactorily speaking."

"If you thought coating yourself in garbage would make you smell less appetizing," Mojyamon said, his grin turning nasty, "then you thought wrong. You might not taste as good as that cake I had, but I'll bet you'll still make a tasty meal. And so will your little blue friend."

"Mojyamon, this is your last warning!" she said, taking on a more confident tone. "Surrender now or we'll have to do this the hard way!"

Mojyamon grunted and pulled out his Bone Boomerang. "Trust me, it'll only be hard for you. For me, it's just fun and games with a meal at the end." He raised the boomerang. "Now start running. That'll make it more interesting."

"I guess he's not going peacefully, Amanda," Penguinmon said.

"I guess not," she sighed, and removed the Banstick from the makeshift holster on her back. "Okay, Mojyamon, you leave me no choice!" And then she struck a pose. "I am the warrior of Love and Justice! I won't forgive those who hurt innocent people and threaten their livelihoods in my hometown! Now, in the name of the Moon – or at least the Dominion of Canada – I shall punish you!"

Penguinmon stared at her. "What the heck was that?"

"I'll show you later. Now, go get him, Penguinmon!"

"Right!" he said, thinking to himself, _Dear Goddramon, what have I gotten myself into?_

Mojyamon was more confused than intimidated as Penguinmon stepped forward, seemingly ready to fight. He didn't even react until the little bird said, "All right, you oversized hairy thief! Come and get me!"

"You asked for it!" he growled and struck at him with the bone boomerang, using it like a club. The little bird was surprisingly nimble, however, and he jumped out of the way just in time. He struck at him a few more times, but each time, Penguinmon dodged it.

_Come on, stupid, follow me a few more times and let's get your back to Amanda so she can sneak up on you!_ he thought. Aloud, he said, "I guess all that cake and stuff is making you slow. You couldn't hit the broad side of a sleeping Mammothmon!"

"Hold still!" Mojyamon snarled, missing him yet again.

"You'll never get me at this rate!" he laughed.

"Why you…!" Mojyamon growled, raising the boomerang high over his head.

_"Ice Prism!"_ Penguinmon attacked, blasting a sharp chunk of ice from his mouth directly into Mojyamon's face, causing him to stagger back as he dropped the boomerang. Not wasting the opportunity, he dashed forward, landing on his belly. _"Slide Attack!"_ he yelled, and a thin layer of ice shot out around him as he slid forward like a little blue torpedo, crashing into Mojyamon's foot, causing him to lose his balance and fall flat on his face.

"Amanda, now!" he called.

"Right!" Amanda rushed forward, her heart beating rapidly, and jammed the Banstick into Mojyamon's side. He began to glow and the electricity began to crackle.

"What are you doing?!" Mojyamon roared, and reflexively kicked out with one massive foot. He caught Amanda directly in the stomach, causing her to sail backwards and smash into a tree, knocking the wind from her.

"Amanda!" Penguinmon cried. "Are you all right?"

Amanda couldn't reply, but gasped for breath as she tried desperately to get to her feet. Mojyamon was already on his, however, and he bounded over to the pair of them, swatting Penguinmon to the side and picking Amanda up with both hands. With her upper arms held against her body, she couldn't properly jab Mojyamon with the Banstick.

"Not sure what that weapon is, little girl, but you won't get a second chance to use it," he said, opening his mouth wide. "It's lunch time!"

"Then I hope you like spicy food!" she grunted, reaching into her pocket and removing the pepper spray. She sprayed it directly into Mojyamon's mouth, causing him to choke and sputter, dropping her as he clutched his throat. As he did so, Penguinmon scrambled up his back, grabbing onto his ears and frantically pecking him on the head.

"Take this! And that! And one of these!"

Amanda rushed forward to try and hit Mojyamon with the Banstick again, but Mojyamon roared and reached up, seizing Penguinmon and throwing him into Amanda like a little feathered dodgeball. The two were only down for a second, but that was enough for Mojyamon to grab both of them, one in each hand, and hold them up helplessly.

"Okay, now you've both ticked me off!" he growled. "Which one do I eat first?"

"Penguinmon!" Amanda cried. "Penguinmon, you've got to digivolve!"

"How the heck am I supposed to do that?!"

"I don't know, but you've got to! We can't beat him like this!"

Mojyamon just laughed. "You never even had a chance! Well, the bird's the one who hurt me yesterday, so I guess I'll let him go first," he said, opening his jaws wide, preparing to stuff Penguinmon into his mouth whole.

_"No!"_ Amanda cried, struggling futilely against Mojyamon's iron grip. "Penguinmon, no! Don't hurt him, please!" she screamed hysterically.

* * *

In the space between dimensions, using the near infinite time between nanoseconds, there are beings that are known as the Spirits of the Digital World. One of them once took possession of Kari Kamiya in Puppetmon's forest to explain the origins of the Digidestined. They had great, but limited power to influence the physical world, and they could travel anywhere they wished to observe any part of the Digital World. However, that day they had traveled to the human realm, to Earth, to observe the strange phenomenon of digimon traveling from the Digital World to Earth.

Unable to communicate directly with humans, they were however capable of harnessing their power. Back when Apocalymon appeared the digimon began to overrun the Earth, such spirits had used their modest power to create digivices and thus new Digidestined to fend off the threat of wild digimon rampaging through their cities. But it was only when they investigated the digimon appearing in Roxanne that they discovered Amanda. Observing her, they now found her, Penguinmon, and Mojyamon locked in a struggle. The moment was frozen in time, like a photograph laid before them.

One spirit with a soft, feminine voice declared, "She needs our help."

A male voice spoke, saying, "But she is the cause of this. She provoked Diaboromon in the first place."

"No, brother, Diaboromon is the cause of this. And she only provoked him because she was trying to help. She wants to protect the world she loves. Is that not noble?"

"Sister, I know what you are thinking. Would you really have us bestow such a rare gift on her? She is strange and eccentric, even for a human."

"But with such a keen mind!"

"And yet that mind could bend our gift to ill purposes."

The female-voiced spirit sighed. "She has done nothing wrong. She cares more for our world and for digimon than one could expect. We have been careful about granting this power to more children since the trouble that befell young Ryo and Ken Ichijouji, not to mention the Unintended One... But this is different. If we do not help her, both she and her partner will be destroyed by this brute! Will you really allow that to happen?"

The male-voiced spirit was silent for a few moments. Changing the subject, he said, "You know that this same gift we have granted to others has not always made their lives better. She will have great hardship if we give this to her. I still doubt she is worthy or even capable of handling such power."

"But do any Digidestined regret that they were given it, or that they have a partner to aid them? Surely not. And this young girl wants to become one as well. She wants it with nearly every fiber of her being. Shall we deny her happiness and leave her to die?"

"Very well," the male-voiced spirit said. "But keep in mind that once she becomes a Digidestined, she will have to bear that responsibility alone."

"No, not alone. She will have a splendid partner to help her. And she will rise to the challenge, no matter what the cost. I know that she will." And thus, in less time than the span of a second, the great Spirits made a decision to take a portion of their energy, and that of Amanda and Penguinmon, and grant Amanda's greatest wish.

* * *

There was a sudden burst of white light that momentarily blinded all three of them and Amanda felt the sudden weight of something small in her hand. She looked down and gasped when she saw it. It was small, square in shape, and with a few buttons and a tiny screen. She had seen it a few times before and recognized it in an instant, and even in her fear at the situation at hand, her heart skipped a beat and her expression became one of joy.

"A digivice!" she exclaimed. And then, turning to a stunned Mojyamon, she held it high. "Penguinmon, now!"

The small bird began to glow and suddenly increased in size dramatically, freeing himself from Mojyamon's grip and towering over him as he took form.

_"Penguinmon digivolve to… Frigimon!"_

Mojyamon stared on in disbelief. Frigimon was tall, considerably taller than he, taller than a human adult. Even though he was made of snow, it was cold and icy and hard, and his coal-black eyes looked down at him menacingly.

"Put my partner down," Frigimon said.

"Wh-who's going to make me?" Mojyamon stammered, trying to put on a brave face.

Frigimon didn't respond verbally, but grabbed hold of Mojyamon's other arm, the one holding Amanda, and squeezed down hard, twisting it painfully, causing him to drop the girl. Then he reeled back and punched Mojyamon square in the face. The big, white-furred digimon staggered back, but shook off the blow and saw his boomerang on the ground. He grinned and picked it up.

_"Boomerang Bone!" _he attacked, throwing it at Frigimon with all his might.

_"Snowball Attack!" _Frigimon fired a huge snowball at the boomerang, and the two projectiles collided in mid-air. This stopped the boomerang and it fell to the ground harmlessly.

"Why you!" Mojyamon growled and simply charged at Frigimon. But Frigimon waited patiently until Mojyamon was almost upon him and then reeled back, preparing his best attack.

_"Subzero Ice Punch!"_ he attacked, landing a powerful blow right on Mojyamon's chest. Mojyamon staggered back again, but this time he saw that ice was rapidly spreading from his chest to the rest of his body, rapidly encasing most of his body.

"No!" he howled as the ice finally froze him in place, rendering him unable to move.

"Amanda, now!" Frigimon called.

Amanda, who had been rooted to the spot, watching the battle in stunned silence, suddenly sprang into action and rushed forward and placed the end of the Banstick into the immobilized Mojyamon. She held it there for five seconds until the big, furry digimon glowed white, crackled with electricity, and then vanished with a dull _bang_ and a puff of smoke.

"We did it!" she cheered, and ran over to Frigimon hugging him. "We did- ah ah, cold! Cold!" she said letting him go.

"Oh, sorry, hold on," Frigimon said before glowing and then reverting back to Penguinmon.

"Penguinmon, you were fantastic!" she exclaimed. "What was that like?"

"It was like…" he paused, thinking it over, "…it was like I could suddenly sense you, sense your energy, and I made it part of myself. Like there was this flow of energy shared between us." He thought this over. "What did the TV call it? It's like… covalent bonds."

"Well, looks like you're learning a lot, Penguinmon. Lucky me, my digimon is a smart one!"

"Thanks! But where did that digivice come from?" he asked.

"I have no idea… it just appeared out of nowhere. Normally I'd wonder about that, but for right now, let's just be glad about it." She smiled brightly. "Penguinmon, do realize what this means? We really are Digidestined partners!"

"Wow," Penguinmon said. "I guess that means we'll always be together, then." He then looked down abashedly. "Hey, listen, I'm sorry about screwing up your day. I never thanked you for taking me in, and then I went and humiliated you twice in a row. I guess I'm kind of a screw-up as a partner."

"Penguinmon, what are you talking about?" she asked, and he saw that tears were running down her face as she stooped down and embraced him. "This is the best day of my life."

Penguinmon still wasn't used to such closeness, but he found himself relaxing and this time he returned the hug genuinely. "You know, I think this might be the best day of mine, too. But what do we do now?"

"That's easy," she said, standing up, clenching her fist with pride. "We're Digidestined, so that means it's our job to protect Earth and the Digital World from evil digimon. This town is our home, so let's protect it! Are you with me?"

"Yeah!" Penguinmon shouted, energized by her conviction. Then he paused. "Uh… do we have to start right now?"

"Ehhh, I think we've had enough excitement today," she said, and started back toward town, carrying the Detector and the Banstick with her. "Let's go tell Mr. Perkins that we beat Mojyamon so he won't worry, and then I'll take you home. I'll get this awful garbage smell cleaned off and then I'll teach you about the two most important things in life."

"Love and Justice?" he asked.

"No, science and anime!" she laughed.

* * *

**Somewhere else…**

In a dark, circular room, surrounded by machines and pipes and blinking lights, a figure stared at a large screen. It displayed different patterns of strange energies and the figure noted with interest a sudden fluctuation in the energy. The pattern followed a wave, always flowing in one direction, but a sudden spike of energy flowing in the opposite direction just occurred.

"Fascinating," the creature said, his voice deep, reverberating, and electronic. "Perhaps I'm not the only one observing this phenomenon. If someone has learned how to control this energy that flows between the two worlds, then perhaps this is someone I should find." He chuckled and his metallic fingers made a clanking noise as he typed something into the computer console before him. "Knowledge of this kind could be very powerful, after all, and it would be better if it that power was mine and mine alone…"

**To be continued…**

* * *

_As Amanda finally becomes a Digidestined, a new unseen opponent is making plans that involve her and the digimon traveling between worlds. Will she be able to live up to her new role and face this new threat, or is this too much for even a child prodigy to handle?_

_As always, please __**leave a review**__ and let me know what you think about this story. I read every review and I'm glad to listen to advice or criticism!_


	4. Visible Spectrum

_Author's Note: It's been a long time since I last updated, but this story is still going on and I plan to update it more frequently for the next few months! Here's the latest chapter in the tale of Canada's finest child prodigy, now with a paranormal twist…_

* * *

**A Small Girl in a Small Town**

**Part 4**

"**Visible Spectrum"**

* * *

"So, that guy with the red hair is a samurai? What about the other guy in the white clothes?"

"He's not exactly a samurai, but he is a warrior. The one with the red hair is Kenshin and the guy in white is Sanosuke."

Penguinmon had quickly found that when Amanda said she was going to teach him about science and anime, she was totally serious about it (at least the anime portion of it). Watching a grainy VHS recording of _Rurouni Kenshin_ on her tiny TV was certainly a learning experience, though. Understanding the way TV worked was one thing, but understanding animation took more explanation. Then understanding that there were different types and her sudden adamant insistence that watching _anime_ was NOT the same thing as watching _cartoons_… it was a lot to take in.

"Kenshin's really strong and he used to be an assassin, but now he helps people and never kills anyone," Amanda explained.

"Uh huh…" Penguinmon said, treating the topic with absolute seriousness.

"He lives with Kaoru and she loves him – though I kinda like to think that Kenshin and Sanosuke have a 'thing,' if you know what I mean." She got another one of her weird, dreamy looks.

"Not really, but go on."

"And they have adventures and fight and stuff."

"And all this happened in a place called Ja… Ja…"

"Japan."

"Right. When did all this happen?"

"Well it's not a real story. It's made up."

"Ah, okay. So it's just like telling a story for fun, then!"

"Right!" she said, relieved that he was finally getting it. "I wish I had this show in Japanese, but I guess the English voices are good. The DVDs cost so much money and the last time I tried to download an episode on file sharing it took _hours—"_

"Umm…"

Amanda smacked her forehead. "Sorry, too much ranting." She mentally checked herself, realizing this was an awful lot of explanation to go over. One of the problems she had explaining things to other people was that she often made assumptions about things they should know. To her, the idea that people had computers and didn't understand some of the most basic things about how they worked was ludicrous. Just as Ms. Foley had said, this sometimes caused her to make other people feel stupid and didn't win her many friends, but with Penguinmon it was actually a bit liberating that he was starting from square one. She didn't lose patience with him because she understood that he really didn't know _anything_ about modern human technology. There were no expectations, so she started from scratch and filled in any gaps she could.

It also didn't hurt that Penguinmon took everything she said and treated it with reverence, hanging on her every word like a perfect student. It was flattering, but also refreshing… she didn't have that many people who cared to listen to her rabid fangirl/tech-geek rantings.

"Japan is an awesome country across the ocean. It's far away, but they make anime and sushi and robots and lots of other cool stuff," she explained.

"Have you ever been there?" he asked.

"No, but I hope I can go someday. It's not like going across town, it's half a planet away!"

"If it's that far away, you should prepare. It might take weeks or months."

She looked at him a little cockeyed. "Uh, it would probably only take a day or so if I flew."

"You can FLY?!"

She burst out laughing. "No! I mean in a plane! You know, a big machine that can fly really fast?"

He shrugged. Amanda was learning a lot about the Digital World as well. For one thing, even though it was wild and untamed frontier in many places, it did have some things like trains and boats and occasionally advanced cities. But for some reason, it lacked cars and jet planes. Powerful digimon could run or fly over great distances, and Penguinmon said he could spend days or weeks at sea if he had to, but it was weird how anachronistic and disjointed the Digital World was. Being based on the data on the Internet meant that a lot of things weren't built, but rather just _appeared _in the Digital World. She thought to herself that it would be wonderful to bring modern technology to it and improve the lives of all those digimon, but for now, well…

She smiled and pulled Penguinmon closer. "I'm glad you're my partner," she said. She was just glad that she had a partner, at least one digimon who cared about her ideas.

"Feeling's mutual," he said. "Uh, do we have any more sardines?"

"You're going to get fat if you keep eating them like that," she admonished.

"So I'll keep warmer in the winter? What's the downside?"

"Must be nice not having to worry about your figure," she grumbled.

"Do humans not like getting fatter?"

"Well, that's—"

A sudden knock on the door interrupted her. "Amanda?" her mother asked, slowly turning the knob.

"Stuffed toy, stuffed toy!" she hissed, and Penguinmon instantly went still, his expression going blank.

"Amanda, I just wanted to let you know that I'm taking Phil with me to the dentist and to go shopping," Anne Giroux said, poking her head into the room. "You've got the morning to yourself, but remember to stop by and talk to Mr. Perkins. Just because it's a Saturday doesn't mean you get to shirk your part time job."

"I know," she said, smiling innocently. "I'll go over there and see if he needs help."

"That's good." Then she noticed the "toy" her daughter was holding. "That's a cute toy, Amanda," she said. "Where did you get it?"

"Oh, uh, I found it when I went dumpster diving yesterday," she said, going with the excuse she had given her father.

"That explains why it looks so dirty."

Penguinmon momentarily made a face, but Amanda squeezed him and subtly glanced down at him as if to say _"Don't you __**dare**__ make a sound."_

"I could put it in the wash if you want," her mother said, stepping forward.

"No!" she said forcefully, wincing at how strong she'd responded a moment later. "Uh, no, that's okay. Remember, I said I'd wash my own clothes. I'll take care of Penguinmon." She winced again.

"Penguinmon?"

"I… I named it," she said, holding Penguinmon up, even though her cheeks were turning red.

"Oh." But Anne Giroux had to smile. "Well, all right." She sniffed the air and made a face. "And also get an air freshener or something. It's starting to smell like fish in here. I don't know why you've suddenly developed a taste for sardines, but don't eat too many of them or you'll get fat or get pimples—"

"O-_kay_ Mama, I got it!" she said, rolling her eyes.

"Just saying." And with that, Anne Giroux closed the door and went back to her own bedroom where Wesley was getting ready for bed.

"You know," she said, "our daughter may be very bright and adult sometimes, but she's still our little girl."

"Oh?" he asked.

"She brought home a stuffed toy," she said.

"Ah," he replied. "Good to know she's not _totally_ grown up yet."

Unaware of all this, Amanda got ready for bed herself.

"I'll get set up in the closet," Penguinmon said.

"Well, now that Mama's seen you, we can share the bed tonight," she said. "It's cozy!"

"Oh… well, if you say so," he said. He normally might have protested, but he had to admit that it really did look comfortable.

A few minutes later, almost buried under the covers and hugged so tightly he could barely breathe by the overly affectionate girl, he began wishing he had refused. In fact, he almost pushed her away and told her he was going back to the closet, but then she said, "Penguinmon? Are you asleep yet?"

"Not… _quite,"_ he grunted.

"We're Digidestined partners now. We need to try our best starting tomorrow. I want you to help me because we're going to be together from now on, okay?"

He sighed, but smiled in spite of himself. "Okay," he said.

"Good," she murmured. "We're going to be the best partners ever…"

And then before he knew it, her grasp lessened and her breathing became soft and regular. The warmth of her body and the soft, subtle beating of her heart let him know that he too had someone there for him, someone who was as happy to be there for him as he was to be there for her. The thought was a comforting one, and soon he relaxed and nodded off himself.

* * *

While the two newly-appointed Digidestined spent their first evening as partners together, another couple of a different kind was having a less peaceful night.

"I don't know how you talked me into this!" Christine hissed.

"Relax," Tommy said. "Those other guys were just joking around when they said they saw a ghost in here."

The young couple was slowly making their way down the hall of the old, abandoned McKinney place out the outside of town. A two-story mansion that had been built in the early 1900s, it had been abandoned for the last 15 or 20 years, or maybe longer. And while it had once been a wonderful home for the once influential McKinney family, it was now mostly a place where teenagers dared each other to sneak in, take a picture, or, in the case of Tommy and Christine, an excuse for guys to scare their girlfriends in an attempt to make themselves look brave and hopefully get to first or even second base.

"Is that a rat?" Tommy asked mischievously, shining his flashlight just to the side of the hallway.

"Sh-shut up, it is not!" Christine said, though she got a little closer to Tommy as her eyes searched the area frantically.

"Just relax, they won't hurt you," he said, flashing a smile as he looked at her over his shoulder. "We're almost to Elizabeth McKinney's room. We'll take a Polaroid and then head right back out and tell Brad and Stacy."

"R-right," she said, calming herself. She smiled at him and Tommy thought to himself that he was getting a bit closer to convincing Christine to spend a lovely evening with him in the backseat of his dad's Hyundai.

Then the color immediately drained from Christine's face and her expression became one of sheer terror. He frowned and turned back to looking forward. He expected to see a rat. But it wasn't a rat.

The form before him was massive, towering figure. A woman in a ratty, stained nightgown with gray skin and emaciated bony arms hanging limply at her side was now less than a meter from him. His gaze slowly went up and he stared at her. Her face was covered by her long black, matted hair, save for a single red eye that stared out at him, piercing his soul.

The woman spoke, and her voice was an icy, grating rasp. _"Come with meeee!"_

Tommy and Christine's screams were loud enough to wake the dead, though Tommy would later swear that the dead were already up and about.

* * *

Despite occasionally being awakened by Amanda's unconscious _glomping_, Penguinmon actually had a fairly quiet and restful night. When the two of them awoke, Amanda checked to make sure her parents were gone, made breakfast for herself and Penguinmon, and plopped down in front of the larger TV in the living room to watch Saturday morning cartoons. With their meal finished, Amanda took a shower and got dressed (this time Penguinmon stayed as far out of her way as possible to avoid a repetition of the previous morning's chaos). But then came the part he wasn't expecting.

"Okay, Penguinmon," she said, "it's time to get you cleaned up."

"Uh, am I not clean enough?"

"Well, I don't think the one or two cans of sardines were all that Mama smelled last night," she said, looking at him pointedly. "I've been getting used to it, but with everything else that's been happening, maybe you could use a good scrubbing. You're starting to get that fish smell."

"I like that smell."

"Well I don't and I politely kept my mouth shut about it all last night!"

He made a face, now feeling irritated. "You didn't mind it when you were practically crushing me to death! And for the record, you didn't completely get that garbage smell off from yesterday, either, so don't get too full of yourself!"

Amanda looked momentarily hurt and looked down. Feeling guilty, he walked over to her and nuzzled her leg. "Hey, hey, I'm sorry, I didn't mean it. I just—"

"Gotcha!" she shouted, immediately seizing him and holding him out with both hands. "You're taking a bath whether you like it or not!"

"What?! Oh you sneaky little human, put me down!" he squawked, struggling hard and flapping his wings to get free. "I don't want a bath!"

She entered the bathroom and he saw that she had already filled the tub and had a bottle of dish soap next to it.

"You've never had a real bath in your life." Still holding him – barely – she squirted some of the soap onto him. He noted that it smelled like lemons. "Your feathers are matted together, so we're going to need the full-on grease-cutting dish soap for this problem. Just like those birds at that oil spill."

"That's insulation!" he protested.

"I'll knit you a sweater if your fat can't keep you warm, H.R. Chunkenstuff," she shot back, and dunked him into the hot water. "There that's not so baAAAAUUGGHH!"

The thing about waterfowl like penguins (or, in this case, Penguinmon), is that they are very easy to hold onto on the ground or in the air if you can catch them. However, once you get them into the water, it's an entirely different story. The instant Penguinmon hit the water, he shot from one end of the tub to the other like a torpedo, pulling Amanda to-and-fro as she tried to hold on. His rapid movement and struggling sloshed huge amounts of water over the side, soaking his human partner to the bone and splashing bubbles and foam all over the small bathroom. He finally slipped from her grasp and shot out onto the bathmat, shaking the excess water from his body.

"Ugh, you little turd! Hold still!" She pounced on him, trying to hold him down with the towel and dry him off, but he again struggled free and took off from the bathroom and down the hall, his webbed feet leaving wet footprints on the carpet.

"Come back here!" she screamed.

"That'll teach you to give someone a bath when they don't want—" he stopped in mid-sentence and froze as he passed a mirror in the hallway. He caught sight of his own reflection and stared at it in sudden amazement.

Though his feathers were ruffled and unkempt, they were now almost gleaming, the blue and white of his coat almost radiant. Penguinmon wasn't a vain digimon by any stretch of the imagination, but this was the first time he'd seen his reflection this clear and he was astonished by how good he looked. He even stopped to smell his own flipper and realized that the faint lemon scent was actually rather pleasant.

"Wow," he said. "I look _great!" _A moment later, Amanda seized him by the scruff of his neck.

He now was face to face with the furious girl and realized that she, by contrast, did _not_ look great. Her hair was a mess, her clothes sopping wet, her glasses spattered with droplets of water, and suds from the dish soap were still clinging to her. She turned him around and he saw the trail of footprints that led back to the bathroom, which was totally drenched with water from his struggling and, to top it all off, there was a dark, greasy ring in the tub.

"Do you know who's going to clean all this up?" she growled.

"Me?" he asked uncertainly.

"You?! Ha! And get that nice clean coat of yours dirty again?" She took him back to her room and dropped him on the bed, toweling him off just like a fussy toddler. _"Mon Dieu_ you're worse than Phil was as a baby. _I'll_ clean the house. _You_ will sit right there and be good if you ever want another sardine from me."

He looked down. "Yes, ma'am."

"Darn right, 'Yes, ma'am,'" she grumbled as she went off to start cleaning.

* * *

On her trek to see Mr. Perkins, Amanda saw yet another crowd gathering on the street. But this time, it seemed to be a bunch of teenagers, and they were all listening to some guy who was clearly desperate for them all to believe him.

"Look, dude, I'm not kidding!"

"You're so full of it," a friend of his said, sneering.

"You and Christine are complete wussies," said one of the girls. "Brad and I went in last year and we never saw anything. We only dared you two to go in to help you out, you big chicken."

"Look, Stacy, I'm not making it up!"

"Then it was one of the other guys dressed up or something," said another.

Tommy was almost purple with rage. "Dammit, nobody else knew we were out there! Nobody could have pranked us and Brad and Stacy were waiting outside!"

Amanda absorbed all this as she passed which caused her to almost run headfirst into Yvonne, who was coming in the opposite direction.

"Hey, where's the fire?" Yvonne asked, nearly spilling the bottle of pop she was carrying.

"Yvonne!" Amanda exclaimed, happy to run into her friend once again. "Hey, good to see you! What's going on with those older kids?"

"Oh you know how it is, there's nothing to do in this town, so when they get bored and tear through a two-four they dare each other to sneak into the McKinney place and take a picture. Sounds like one of them got scared when he took his girlfriend in there and now he's trying to say there really is a ghost there. He says Elizabeth McKinney showed up."

"That old story?" Amanda rolled her eyes. "That's stupid."

"Tell me about it." Then Yvonne crossed her arms smugly. "You know, I spent an evening in that place once."

"You did? What happened? Tell me!" Amanda said, unable to hide her enthusiasm.

"Oh, it was last year; some of the older Goth kids brought me along. They tried to lock me in a closet and make me cry while chanting some lame séance thing or something."

"What happened?"

Yvonne grinned, her black lipstick giving her, to Amanda's eyes, a confident, sleek smile that looked like it would stand up to any ghost. "Nothing. I just stood there in the closet, playing a Game Boy until they got bored at let me out. When they finally opened the door, I rolled my eyes back in my head and started muttering, doing that whole 'demonic possession' thing. It creeped them out so badly that when I screamed all of a sudden they _freaked out!_" She did a convincing "possessed by a demon" impression then and the two girls laughed so loud that they actually attracted the attention of the teenagers.

"Hey!" Tommy yelled angrily. "Are you two brats laughing at us?"

Amanda immediately retreated inwards and tried to slink away, but Yvonne just glared back at them. "What do you care if we are?" she asked.

"Yvonne…" Amanda whimpered.

"Get lost, you little vampire, and take your four-eyed friend with you!"

"If I were really a vampire, you'd be wetting your pants already, you big chicken!" she shot back, getting the other teens to laugh.

"Ah, whatever, go back to your coffin, Baby Goth," Tommy said, lamely trailing off as he and the others went back to ignoring the two elementary schoolers.

"Jeez, Yvonne," Amanda whispered.

"Pfft, they're like everyone else in this town: all talk and no trousers." She took another sip of pop and added, "Still, ghosts and bears or bigfoot or whatever… exciting summer so far, eh?"

_You have no idea,_ Amanda thought, thinking of her digimon partner stuffed into her backpack again. Outwardly, she simply nodded.

"Listen, I'm heading over to the comic shop. I'm sure the clerk has some discount Japanimation—"

_"Anime."_

"Whatever. I'm sure he saved some up for you." She grinned. "Oh, and I seem to remember _Leon_ saying he'd be there."

Amanda's eyes lit up. "Leon likes comics?"

"He's a boy. They're all pretty much the same: they like bacon, comics, and boobs."

"Yvonne, shush!" she said, looking around in embarrassment.

"And since you're lacking in at least two of those areas—"

"Oh shut up!" she said, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Then perhaps sharing some comic love might get his attention?" She eyed Amanda knowingly.

She was stuck. The offer was a tempting one. Cute boys and comics was one heck of a good combination, but she still had her 'job' with Mr. Perkins, even if it had evolved into something out of the ordinary.

"I… I can't, Yvonne. I've got my job with Mr. Perkins now."

"It's _Saturday!"_ Yvonne cried. "Jeez, take a day off!"

"Well I won't be there all day," she said weakly. "But I need to help out a little."

"You're going to miss some _prime_ Leon time," Yvonne said.

"Yvonne, I just can't."

"Fine!" Yvonne growled. Then, with a rather cruel sneer, she added, "Maybe it's for the best. You'd probably just clear out that comic shop with another cosmic-scale fart like yesterday."

"Th-that wasn't me!" Amanda stammered, turning bright red.

"Then who was it? I didn't see anyone else there and it's a little late to try and lay the blame somewhere else."

"That… I…" Again, she was stuck. The only way to explain it now was to tell her about Penguinmon and that was something she wasn't quite ready to lay on her best friend, especially not when she was giving her a hard time.

"That's what I thought," Yvonne said smugly. "Well, whatever. Enjoy polishing Perkins' head!" she laughed as she walked away.

"I will!" Amanda shot back. "I mean… shut up!"

* * *

"Stupid Yvonne…" Amanda grumbled as she checked the inventory of back room at Perkins' Parts with Penguinmon. "Stupid part-time job taking me away from cute boys…"

"I thought you liked it here," Penguinmon said.

"I do, but computer parts are one thing—"

"—And boy parts are another?"

"Oh god, Penguinmon!" she cried as she burst out laughing. Penguinmon didn't quite get what was so funny, but he laughed anyway, glad that he'd managed to momentarily cheer up his partner.

"So, wow, there's a ghost in your town," he remarked. "That's kind of creepy."

"Don't be silly, there's no such thing," she said dismissively.

"You sound really sure," Penguinmon said. "Why do you say that?"

"People have talked about ghosts and been scaring each other with ghost stories for thousands of years, but they're just stories. In all that time, there hasn't been any hard evidence that they exist. And as a woman of science," she said (in a way that seemed haughty even to Penguinmon), "I don't believe in silly superstitions."

"Speaking of which, you said you'd teach me about science," he said. "You keep using that word. What does it mean?"

"Well, since you're a digimon and the Digital World is made up of data from human networks, I guess you're kind of a product of science. That's another thing I like about you."

"Thanks!" he said. He paused. "I'm still not following."

"Eh, forget about that. Okay, uh, let's see… science…" She pulled up a large box and sat on it across from Penguinmon. "Science is all about learning how the world works and trying to understand the truth."

"About what?"

"Just about everything!" she exclaimed, and her enthusiasm was clearly growing. "Okay, imagine you have a lake or a river that has lots of tasty fish." That got his attention. "But then someone else says that there's another lake nearby that has MORE tasty fish. You could stay where you are or move to the other lake. How do you decide which lake is better?"

Penguinmon shrugged. "How trustworthy is the person from the other lake?"

"That's a good question. But let's put that aside. See, a _scientist_ would take the original idea, the _hypothesis_ that the other lake has more fish and put it to the test. He might fish in both lakes for a while and carefully note how many fish he can catch, how long it takes to catch the fish, etc. and decide whether the original hypothesis is right or not. If it is right, he can move to the other lake. If it's disproved and there really aren't more fish, he stays where he is."

"Ahhh," Penguinmon said. "That's not hard to explain. So, you're saying you don't believe in ghosts because there's no evidence that they exist."

"Right. Science is all about what's likely and using evidence to reduce the possibilities down to the only possible conclusion. Process of elimination."

"Then how do you explain what those other humans were talking about? One of them said he saw a ghost."

She rolled her eyes. "Teenagers," she muttered. "They do stupid stuff all the time because they're bored or drunk or high or whatever. This town's so boring they make stuff up all the time to make things more exciting. But it's still the same tiny, boring place. Or it was until you and the other digimon showed up."

"Speakin' of which," said Mr. Perkins as he opened the door, "I got sometin' I wanna talk to ya about."

"Mr. Perkins!" Amanda said, standing up straight. "I'm sorry, I was only sitting down for a second to explain something to Penguinmon—"

"Never mind that, me dear, just leave that for a second."

"Are we supposed to shine your head now?" Penguinmon asked.

"What the- Mind yer mout' ya little frigger!" Mr. Perkins growled.

"Er, sorry about that Mr. Perkins," Amanda said, giving Penguinmon a sharp look. "What's the problem?"

"I got two tings we need to discuss," he said. "First, I'm still findin' that damned program on the computers and still no idea where it's comin' from. But even worse, I'm findin' it on the computers I wiped it from already."

"Wait… you mean it came back?" she asked. "Were they hacked or—"

"No, see, they weren't hooked up to the internet. They just appeared. I gotta feelin' that those computers at the school probably got it back too."

"But… how?"

"No idea. I'm still workin' on that," he said. "And if ya got the time, I'd appreciate some help."

"Sure, I'll do whatever I can."

"And then there's the other ting I wanted to talk about," he said, holding up the Banstick. "I still don't know what to make of all this, but if yer really a Digidestined, then I guess it's kinda yer job to take down any more of those tings that show up."

"Don't worry, Mr. Perkins," Amanda said confidently. "Penguinmon's my partner and with this," she added, holding up her digivice with pride, "he can digivolve and kick some serious butt."

"Well, just watch out and see that the butts yer kickin' won't kick back," he said, setting the Banstick down. "Yer partner may be pretty tough, but that ain't the same fer you, me dear. I'd hate to see a little girl get hurt, Digidestined or not."

"I'll be careful," she said.

"Good. Because, well… you know what, never mind."

"What?"

"It's… well, I know you heard about those kids that went to the McKinney place. I heard you two talkin' about it."

"Small town, news travels fast," she replied.

"Right, well, I heard some other kids at breakfast this mornin'. I got some pancakes and some o' them kids are talkin' about goin' back there tonight."

"So?"

"So… well, what if they did see sometin'?"

Amanda let out an exasperated sigh. "Mr. Perkins, not you too!"

"No, not a ghost," he said. "What if it was another digimon?"

Amanda froze. That might actually make sense now that she thought about it. The encounter with Mojyamon had people talking about bears and things, so perhaps this latest incident was another case of mistaken identity. She'd assumed that it was just the teenagers playing pranks on one another, but if it wasn't, and more kids were going there that night…

"People could get hurt if it was a digimon," she said. "Maybe it just wanted to scare them away, but if it feels threatened by other people, then it could turn violent."

"Right. So, I got an idea. Let's head over there in the early evenin'. The kids won't go there until around midnight anyway. If we can bag this ting before then, we can stop 'em from gettin' hurt."

"Mr. Perkins, that place is old and with your leg, it could be risky," Amanda said.

"I'll just drive over and wait there in me truck," he said, waving her concern away. "If tings go bad, I'll call the police or at least provide a getaway car."

She looked at Penguinmon and shrugged. "He's got a point."

"Well, like you said, we're Digidestined now, so this is our job," he said.

She smiled. "Darn right! Okay, I'll tell my parents I'm over at Yvonne's watching a movie or something tonight and we'll head over at six or seven o'clock. I'll bring the Digimon Detector and the Banstick and we'll send this boogieman packing!"

"Unless it really is a ghost," Penguinmon added a little unsurely.

"I ain't afraid of no ghost!" she proclaimed, and laughed for some reason Penguinmon couldn't figure out.

* * *

Since their little "ghost hunt" wasn't going on until later, Amanda elected to spend their afternoon productively. After a few hours of helping Mr. Perkins, she took Penguinmon over to the comic shop. Seeing nobody there and realizing she'd missed her chance to meet up with Leon and Yvonne, she went to the Roxanne Community Library. She greeted the librarian and went to a deserted corner on the top floor.

"What kind of place is this?" Penguinmon asked as he climbed out of Amanda's backpack.

"This is a library. This is where the town collects a bunch of books. You can read them here or borrow them for a little while. It's free as long as you bring it back in two weeks." She smiled as she ran her fingers along the spines of a shelf of books. "I used to come here a lot as a little girl. Ever since I was old enough, I loved to read about things." She momentarily got a sour look. "Even if the other kids called me an egghead."

"A library, eh?" He was aware of libraries. They existed even in the Digital World, though they were rare and he'd never been to one. The Roxanne Community Library was actually quite small, but it was still the most books he'd ever seen in one place before. Amanda had checked out a few magazines from the reference desk, including a few titled _Popular Mechanics _and another called _Scientific American._ She also had a stack of smaller hardcover books and beckoned Penguinmon over to look at them.

"What are these for?" he asked.

"Well, I want to teach you as much about science as possible. It's important stuff, so maybe we should get started on reading a few of them."

Penguinmon picked up a book, looked at the cover, then set it down. He did this a second and third time and each time he looked only at the front without actually opening any of them.

"Uh, you don't see one that captures your interest?" she asked.

He said nothing and went over a few more books in silence.

"Penguinmon? What's the matter? Do they look too complicated?"

He squinted at the book he was holding and finally opened it. Her relief was short lived because he dropped it and set it aside a second later, shrugging his shoulders.

"What's the problem?" she demanded.

"I'm… I'm sorry, Amanda, but I can't read these."

"You what?!"

"Well, I know how to read Digicode, the runic letters we use in the Digital World, but not these."

"Ah… well, that's a problem." She paused to think it over. "Okay, teaching you to read is probably going to be high on our list of things to do. In the meantime," she said, going through the stack of books herself, "let's just start off with this one. It's kind of a kid's book, but the pictures will make it easier to understand."

He picked it up and flipped it open. It showed a picture of a rainbow over a grassy valley.

"This one's about rainbows and colors and stuff. Since you seem so happy about how colorful you look today after that bath this morning," here she gave him a somewhat sour look, "then let's talk about colors." She turned the page and showed him a picture of a beam of white light going into a crystal. A rainbow was coming out the other side.

"When light hits a prism, it splits it up into different bands of light," she explained. "So when light gets refracted or bent by going through rain, it makes a rainbow."

"Okay," he said, trying to follow.

"See, when light bounces off of different things, depending on what it hits, it comes back at different frequencies. That's what makes things different colors. When there was less grime and dirt on your feathers, it let the light shine off of you better, so that's why you look bluer than you used to."

"So color is made by light. All right, I think I get it. But why does this picture show a rainbow and then it shows more light bouncing off above and below it?"

"That's because we can only see colors on the visible spectrum."

"Huh?"

"Well, if light has a low frequency, it's red. But if it's lower than that, we don't see a color at all. That's called 'infrared.' If it has high frequency, we see it as violet, or purple. Any higher, we can't see it again and we call that 'ultraviolet.' There's infrared and ultraviolet light everywhere, we just can't see it."

"Okay, then how do we know it's there?"

"Well, a bunch of ways, but… hm, how can I show you?" She got up suddenly and went elsewhere in the library. When she returned, she had a picture book about spies. She showed a picture of a man breaking into a building and using a spray to create mist to detect security lasers. When he sprayed the mist, the lasers showed up as dimly visible rays of light.

"Wow! Does that really work?"

"Yeah! By adding particles of mist to the air, they slightly reflect the light from the infrared lasers and make them more visible."

"Neat!" he said. He took the book and began flipping through the pages. He couldn't understand everything that was going on, but the pictures were actually pretty helpful. Keeping their voices down to avoid alerting the librarian, the pair examined several other books. Penguinmon asked questions and she filled in the gap. They kept going until it was almost five o'clock and they finally had to return home for dinner.

They would need to keep up their strength for the ordeal that awaited them at the McKinney place.

* * *

"Okay, me dear, we've arrived," Mr. Perkins said as he pulled up to the McKinney manor. The building was on the outskirts of town. The large building was two stories tall and the old gothic façade of it was cracked and dirty. The windows had mostly been smashed out or boarded over, the roof was caving in in several locations and weeds had overgrown the spacious yard. It stood as a foreboding landmark of town lore and an object of absolute terror for nearly every kid who had grown up in the town for the last few decades.

"Tch. It's just some old house," Amanda scoffed. She took out her Digimon Detector and flicked it on. She made a face when she saw the reading.

"See anything, Amanda?" Penguinmon asked.

"Well… sort of." She showed Mr. Perkins and Penguinmon the screen. Rather than a single distinct dot on the crosshairs of the screen, there was an indistinct blur that seemed to cover the house.

"Why's it doin' that?" Mr. Perkins asked.

"I'm not really sure," she replied. "It should just be a single dot if it's a digimon."

"Then, maybe," Penguinmon said hesitantly, letting fear creep into his voice, "it really is a ghost."

"Shyeah right. It's either a digimon with a weird electromagnetic reading or it's something about the house messing with the signal or the equipment's just not functioning right."

"Don't be too dismissive, me dear."

She looked at him with an unspoken _Oh please tell me you're kidding_ look that he found more than a little annoying. "Ghosts aren't real, Mr. Perkins. I'm 10 years old and I don't believe in ghosts. You're a grown up."

"I didn't say it was a ghost. I just said not to be dismissive." He unlocked the door of his truck and let the girl and her partner out. "I'm not too fond of lettin' ya go in there," he said. "It's probably pretty musty and not too safe, so you be careful walkin' around there."

"I will," she said, and shut the door. She made her way through the weeds, clutching the Banstick and approaching the front door.

* * *

Little did she realize that the whole time she and Mr. Perkins were outside, unfriendly eyes were watching them all from the window of the top floor.

"Oh, look who it is," a voice whispered. "This is going to be _fun!"_

* * *

Amanda approached the front door, Penguinmon at her side. Well, actually, since the door had long since been broken or stolen by some random intruder ages ago, it was just an empty door frame. Either way, she entered, wrinkling her nose at the stale, musty odor as she did so. The front room was a large area with a moldy, faded carpet on the floor. To the left was the ancient dining room, the old table covered with carvings from decades of teenagers trying to leave their mark. Spraypainted graffiti was found sporadically on the walls. To the right was the old living room. The rotted and ancient furniture either gone or in such a state of disrepair that nobody with half a brain would risk sitting in it. Directly in front of them was a curving set of dilapidated stairs with several holes and rotted floorboards where others had tried to climb them and probably gotten a sprained ankle for their trouble. Above them, a lopsided and broken chandelier was hanging loosely from the ceiling.

"What a dump," Amanda remarked.

"Your house is much nicer," Penguinmon agreed.

Amanda was about to comment on that when there was a sudden rattling above them and something came rushing down the stairs. Amanda tensed up as Penguinmon stood in front of her defensively. The thing came down the steps and stopped before them. When they saw it, they immediately relaxed and looked at the thing with disdain.

The creature was small and wearing a dirty white sheet. The eyeholes were uneven and the creature's dirty claws and yellow-furred hands jutted out from the sides as it jumped up and down in a lame attempt to be menacing.

"Boogah boogah boogah!" the creature yelled. "I'm a scary ghoooost and I'm here to haunt youuuu!"

Amanda and Penguinmon exchanged looks, almost as if trying not to laugh. They both recognized the voice and the yellow fur immediately. "Heh," Amanda chuckled. "Hey, Penguinmon, look who it is."

"Dogmon," Penguinmon sighed. "Oh no. Whatever shall we do?" he asked without the slightest hint of being threatened.

"What?!" Dogmon cried, throwing the sheet off in frustration. "How'd you see through my brilliant disguise?!" He growled and stomped on the sheet angrily. "Oh well, it doesn't matter because you two are still no match for me! It's time to play!"

Amanda held up her digivice with a smug look. "I was hoping we'd find you again, Dogmon. You want to play, then let's make it a fair game."

"It's payback time!" Penguinmon said as he began to glow. _"Penguinmon digivolve to… Frigimon!"_

Dogmon's eyes went wide as he stared at the towering snowman. The floorboards creaked as he took a menacing step forward and Amanda held up the Banstick, ready to send the annoying little pest packing.

Then, out of nowhere, Dogmon held up a sign that said "Yipes!" and dashed back up the steps, letting the sign spin several times in midair before it fell, clattering on the floor.

"Hey, come back here!" Amanda yelled. "Frigimon, after him!"

"Right!" The two of them ran up the stairs, the floorboards creaking threateningly as they went to the second floor. They looked up and down the long hallway, but the diminutive digimon was nowhere to be seen.

"Let's search the rooms. That little jerk can't hide forever!"

They slowly made their way up the hall and peeked into one of the rooms. Behind them, unseen, Dogmon slipped out of a different room and crept back down the steps.

_Nice trick, _he thought to himself. _But I've got an even better one. My new pal will teach you to spoil my fun!_

He slipped out the front and saw Mr. Perkins sitting in his truck, waiting patiently as he listened to the radio. He flashed a toothy grin as an idea took hold.

* * *

"He's not in here," Frigimon said.

"No, it doesn't look like it," Amanda replied. "Let's search the next room."

As Frigimon, Penguinmon felt much stronger and more confident than he had when they'd first entered the house. The revelation that their opponent was Dogmon didn't hurt either. As a Rookie, he'd been unable to defend against the annoying canine's tricks, but as a Champion, all he'd need is one good Subzero Ice Punch to take down that mutt. Still, he was even more impressed that his partner showed absolutely no fear in this creepy place. Something about her insistence that ghosts weren't real made him all the more certain that she was right and that nothing would harm them.

They entered the next room, which looked to be one of the many bedrooms in the manor. The bed was gone, but there was a faint rectangular outline on the floor that indicated a bed might have once stood there. Blank square patches on the wall indicated that pictures had once hung there.

_"Get… out…"_

Amanda turned to Frigimon. "Did you hear that?" she asked.

"Uh… yeah. Was that Dogmon?"

"Must be. He's good at changing his voice," she remarked. "That sounded like a woman's voice."

_"Get… out… now…"_ the voice said again. The high-pitched feminine town echoed through the house and there was a hint of menace in that "now" that gave Frigimon a chill. And that was no easy task when you were made of snow.

"You can't scare us, Dogmon!" Amanda shouted. "Come on out, you cowardly flea-bitten—"

She turned and froze, the color slowly draining from her face. Frigimon also turned. In one corner of the room was a very tall woman with black, ragged hair hanging down to cover her face. She slowly looked up and her sunken, white face became visible as she stared out with one red eye. She was wearing filthy nightgown that was barely clinging to her frame as she reached out at them.

_"GET… OUT…" _she moaned.

Amanda screamed and dove behind Frigimon. "Frigimon!" she shrieked.

Frigimon scooped her up and swept her outside, into the hall. He turned to look back in the room to see if the apparition was following them, but to his surprise the thing had vanished. It was gone without a trace as if it was never there in the first place.

"What… what was that?" Amanda said, trying to catch her breath.

"Was that… a ghost?" Frigimon asked.

"That… no," she said, regaining her composure. "We didn't get a look at it clearly. It's a trick."

Frigimon looked down at the small girl and saw a good deal of uncertainty in her eyes. "Are you sure?" he asked.

"Y-yeah," she said. "Dogmon must be using his cartoon powers in a weird way. We can't let him scare us."

Frigimon stood to his full height. "You're right. Okay, no problem. We'll find him, no problem." He hoped he sounded more confident than he felt. They went further up the hall and looked in a different room.

This room looked like it had once been a woman's room, perhaps a fancy sitting room. Stained and torn lace curtains were on the window and faded floral wallpaper was slowly peeling from the walls. The pair walked into the center of the room. There didn't seem to be anyone there either.

"Frigimon, check the closet," she said.

He eyed the closed door apprehensively. "What? Why me?"

"Because you're a big, tough snowman, so if Dogmon pops out all of a sudden you can clobber him better than I can! Quit being a chicken and look!"

Frigimon sighed and went over to the closet. He looked back at Amanda and held up three fingers. He counted down silently, going _Three… two… one!_ before tearing the door open to find…

Nothing. The closet was empty.

"Well, that's another room down."

Then that icy, feminine voice was heard again. _"You're the one going down,"_ it said. Just then, the floorboards creaked and buckled below Amanda's feet. Before she realized what was going on, the floor broke and she plunged, screaming, through a massive hole in the floor.

_"Frigimon!"_ she screamed, disappearing in a cloud of dust and splinters.

"Amanda!" he cried, reaching for her. He was too slow, however, and he heard the girl hit the floor below them, though he couldn't see her through the cloud of debris. When she didn't respond, he dashed from the room and down the hall, making his way for the stairs, hoping that his partner was unharmed from falling to the story below.

When he arrived in the room, with dust still settling, he saw where she made her impact and saw the gigantic hole in the ceiling, but the girl was nowhere to be seen.

"Amanda?" he called. No response. "Amanda, where are you?!" But again, there was no response from his partner at all. The girl had simply vanished.

* * *

A few moments earlier, Amanda had actually been there. She struggled to her feet, head spinning and she coughed as she stumbled from the room, the dust and dirt from her fall still hanging in the air.

"Are you all right?" She looked up and saw Frigimon.

"Yeah," she said. "I'm fine, thanks."

"Good," he said. "Let's go look in another room."

"No problem." She took the lead and started looking in the dining room. The same scratched up dining room table was there and she made a face reading some of the nastier things carved into the surface.

"Are you scared?" Frigimon asked.

"Not really," she said. "Just a little nervous. That could have really hurt when I fell."

"Hold my hand," Frigimon said and wrapped his large, frosty hand around hers. It was cold, but strong and she felt somewhat comforted by the gesture. The two of them walked a bit further when she heard a loud voice that sounded something like Frigimon's call out "Amanda? Amanda, where are you?!"

"What the… that sounded like your voice, Frigimon!"

"It's the ghost playing a trick," Frigimon said, and he seemed very certain, and not the slightest bit panicked. "Don't respond."

"Ghosts don't exist, Frigimon! It's just a trick!"

The two of them were walking down the first floor hallway and passing by a large mirror hanging on the wall. It had been cracked and it was dirty with handprints all across it, but when they ventured a bit further she could clearly see her own reflection. She gave only a momentary glance at first but when she looked, she expected to see Frigimon's reflection in it as well. But then she froze as she saw that the thing holding her hand was not her partner. In the reflection in the mirror, she caught sight of the menacing creature that was floating just behind her, speaking in her partner's voice and assuming his form.

"Who are you?!" She whirled around, trying to yank her hand from the imposter's grasp. "Frigimon, help me!" she managed to scream as the creature laughed and lunged forward.

* * *

Frigimon began searching the rooms desperately when he didn't hear Amanda respond to his call. He tore from room to room, throwing furniture out of his way in frustration as he looked around. He was searching yet another empty, dilapidated room when he heard her cry out, "Frigimon, help me!" He sprinted down the hallway until, seemingly out of nowhere, a little yellow leg shot out and tripped him, causing him to smash into the floor roughly. He got up, practically steaming with rage at the sound of the small creature's snickering.

"Oops! Frosty fall down, go boom!" Dogmon laughed.

"You little punk," Frigimon growled. "Where's my partner?"

"That human? Why she's right behind you!" Dogmon said.

"Nice try, I'm not falling for that," Frigimon said, pounding his fist into his palm menacingly. But then he heard Amanda's voice muttering just behind him. He turned around and gasped at what he saw.

Amanda Fabienne Giroux staggered toward him slowly, her clothes dirty and covered with dust. She had several cuts and scratches on her arms and legs and she was bleeding profusely from a wound on her head. In fact, she was dripping blood on the floor and looked like she had been badly hurt from her fall.

"Amanda!" he cried and rushed forward to help her.

"Don't touch me!" she hissed, holding up one hand to stop him. She looked up at him with angry eyes. He saw her glasses had been cracked and were hanging lopsidedly on her face. "You miserable failure."

"W-what?" he stammered, taking a step back.

"You didn't protect me," she grumbled. "We came here to this place and all you had to do was protect me." She put her hand on her forehead and then took it away, examining the red splotch of blood on her palm. "Now, look at what happened to me… you didn't protect me!"

"It happened so fast," he said. "I… I'm so sorry, Amanda." He went weak in his knees and fell to the ground. "Don't worry, I can help you."

"You? Who needs you if you let me get hurt like this!" she shouted, and to his surprise she actually reeled back and slapped him across the face. The force of the blow wasn't great, but he felt the sting more acutely than he thought would have been possible. "I want you to go away. I never want to see you again!"

"Amanda…" He felt the hatred in her voice and the guilt of having let her down and it was, to him, the worst pain he had ever felt in his life. "I'm sorry… I'm so sorry…"

"It's too late for that," she said. And then, to his astonishment, she sudden sprang to the ceiling and clung to it like some kind of insect. She peered down at him and then, in a grotesque display, rotated her head completely around, so that even though her body was hanging upside-down, her face was now lined up with his. She smiled demonically. "You cost me my life! Now taste my wrath!"

"No!" he screamed as he scrambled to his feet trying to get away from this horrifying vision. "NO! Get away from me!" He ran from the cackling ghost of his partner, his fear and guilt driving him onward as he dashed outside. "Mr. Perkins!" he shouted. "Mr. Perkins, help! Amanda's…"

But when he arrived outside, the truck was empty. The engine was still running and the radio was still playing but the door was open and Mr. Perkins was nowhere to be seen.

"Mr… Perkins?" Frigimon called uncertainly. He heard loud laughter emanating from the McKinney place. His fear took hold even more strongly then, but as he took a few deep breaths and began to collect his thoughts, he slowly began to let more rational thought back in.

_Amanda wouldn't say those things. Even if she really is… gone… no, she wouldn't say those things. And Mr. Perkins is missing now too. Come to think of it, I didn't see Amanda with the Banstick just now. I'm not sure what that was back there, but that can't be Amanda. That must mean that she and Mr. Perkins are still inside!_

He turned and looked back at the McKinney place. The tall, foreboding house still made him nervous, even moreso now that the shadows of early evening set in, but he felt a new burst of courage welling up from within. He remembered the previous evening when Amanda told him that they both had to do their best, and his course of action became clear.

"I have to protect my partner," he said aloud, and trudged back toward the house.

Once inside the front room, he stood still. His target was somewhere in the house, but wandering around it hadn't done any good earlier. He decided to try a different tactic.

"I know you're here!" he shouted. "Come on out and show yourself!"

Moments later, the thing came down the steps. It looked like Amanda, still, but now it was bent and contorted, walking like a crab on all fours, its head still turned upside down grotesquely. It came closer and righted itself, standing straight up and staring at him with accusing eyes. The fear gripped him, but he stood his ground.

"What are _you_ doing here?" the thing said in Amanda's voice. "I told you already… get out!"

"You're not my partner," he said. "I've only known her for a little while, but she'd never say things like that."

"You miserable, traitorous—"

"Show me your true form!" he bellowed, and the thing that looked like Amanda gasped and took a step back. But then it smiled and shifted form back into that of the tall woman with the stringy black hair.

"I am the ghost of Elizabeth McKinney… any who trespass here must feel my wrath…"

Frigimon wasn't sure what to make of this, but judging by the sudden fear it displayed when he'd shouted, he was certain that this creature was lying.

"Amanda said ghosts aren't real. If you're really a ghost, then this won't hurt you. _Snowball Attack!"_

He hurled a large snowball from his fist, blasting the monstrous apparition in the face. It staggered back and shifted form again, but this time he saw it for what it really was.

"Ugh… why you…" The creature had blue hands and it floated in the air. It had a mouth full of pointy white teeth and yellow eyes that stared out from under a ratty-looking sheet. Frigimon narrowed his eyes.

"A Bakemon," he rumbled. Bakemon were undead-type digimon that took the appearance of ghosts. They had the ability to mimic other forms, and this one was apparently very good at it.

"How did you see through my disguise?!" he demanded.

"Just because you can look like my partner doesn't mean you know anything about her. She treats me better than any digimon ever has. Now tell me where she is or I'll beat you to a pulp!"

"You have to catch me first!" Bakemon laughed and flew to the right, directly into the living room.

"Come back here!" Frigimon shouted. But when he rounded the corner and entered the run-down living room, there was seemingly no one there. He paused, searching around and tried to collect his thoughts: _Okay, I saw it come in here, but now it's gone. I was only a little bit behind it and there's no way out of this room except through the entrance I came through. But I don't see that Bakemon anywhere. Come on, Frigimon, think! Amanda taught you about science and stuff, so think scientifically! Even ghost digimon can't pass through solid things, the windows in here are all boarded up, and I know it came through here… so… it must still be in here._

He blinked with the sudden realization. "Process of elimination," he whispered. It was the only conclusion left. But if it could change shape, then perhaps this Bakemon had learned a new skill with its appearance-shifting abilities. Maybe it could just turn _invisible._ And that thought reminded him of something else he'd seen earlier that day.

_Well, _he thought, _if it can use its abilities in a new way, then maybe I can too!_

Summoning up his power, he began reducing the temperature of his icy body even further, colder and colder until he began giving off a cloud of frost. It was small at first, but soon it grew larger and filled the room, permeating the air with a mist of tiny, icy particles. And gradually, as the particles began sticking to the walls and furniture, a faint outline of a ghostly form began to appear in the corner of the room, huddling silently, shrinking from him with fear. He grinned. _Visible spectrum,_ he thought.

"There you are!" he shouted and reached out, seizing Bakemon in his large hands, pinning his arms to his sides. Bakemon became visible immediately and gasped with surprise.

"That's not possible! How did you see me?!" he stammered.

"Where's my partner?!" Frigimon demanded.

"Let me go! You big, stupid snowman, I said let me go!"

Frigimon was too furious for words. First this interloper had terrified the other humans here in Roxanne, then he had played on his and Amanda's fears, then kidnapped her, and now all it cared about was getting free and it still wouldn't tell him where Amanda and Mr. Perkins were. Enraged, he lifted Bakemon over his head and threw him as hard as he could to the floor.

The force of the throw was more than he had bargained for, however, and the floor smashed into a million pieces, caving in and causing them both to drop through it and into the cellar below. Coughing and waving his hand to clear the air of all the dirt, wood rot, and frost, Frigimon's eyes gradually became accustomed to the darkness in the dank and musty cellar. When he looked up, he saw Amanda and Mr. Perkins on the other side of the expansive space.

The pair of them were tied up and gagged, struggling against their bonds. Nearby them, an astonished Dogmon was standing, his jaw _literally_ on the floor.

"What are you doing here?!" Dogmon demanded. "Bakemon, I thought you scared that big snowman off!"

Frigimon narrowed his coal-black eyes. "I see now. You two were working together. Dogmon suckered us into thinking he was the one pulling those tricks on the teenagers, but it was both of you playing pranks this whole time!"

"And we would have gotten away with it too," said Dogmon, "if it wasn't for this meddling kid and her giant, talking snowman!"

Frigimon looked down and saw a dazed Bakemon trying to crawl away. _"Subzero Ice Punch!"_ he attacked, pounding his fist into Bakemon, freezing him solid in his tracks. He then turned his attention to Dogmon and raised his fist menacingly. "Back away from them or you're next!"

"Jinkies!" Dogmon didn't have to be told twice. He turned tail and ran up the steps, whimpering with his tail between his legs as he went. Frigimon walked over and used his strength to simply snap the ropes that bound Amanda's arms. She undid the gag around her mouth and then threw her arms around Frigimon's neck.

"Frigimon!" she cried. "You were wonderful! How did you figure out it was that ghost digimon the whole time?"

He embraced his small partner, relieved to see she was unharmed. "That Bakemon? I owe it all to you," he said. "I just used the stuff you taught me. See, I figured—"

"Mmmph!" Mr. Perkins said, struggling in his own bonds.

"Oh, right," Amanda said, releasing Frigimon and undoing the ropes around her feet. "Frigimon, help Mr. Perkins get free and carry him back to his truck. He shouldn't walk around here with that hurt leg of his."

"What about you?" he asked.

"Me? I've got some business to take care of." She walked over to the Banstick and flicked it on, breathing a sigh of relief when the soft hum of electricity was heard. It had apparently not been broken in the struggle between herself and Bakemon. She stepped over to the frozen ghost digimon. He was still conscious inside the ice and he looked up at her with fear. "Well, you tried to scare us, but it looks like you're the only one chilled to the bone." She grinned. "Hey, did you hear that, Frigimon? How did you like—?" but her partner had already gone up the stairs, leaving nobody to hear her. "Pfft. What a waste of a badass catchphrase," she grumbled. "Oh well. Mr. Ghost, consider yourself busted!"

She jammed the Banstick into Bakemon's side and after a few seconds there was a flash of light and a puff of smoke and he was gone, sent back to the Digital World.

* * *

Once she was back outside, Mr. Perkins was safe in his truck and Frigimon was standing by, waiting.

"Did you send that little frigger back where he came from?" Mr. Perkins asked.

"Uh huh. Are you okay, Mr. Perkins?"

He rubbed his leg slightly, wincing momentarily, but nodded. "Yeah. That Dogmon came after me while ya both were inside. He dragged me to the cellar before I could call for ya to help."

"Well that's the last straw!" she shouted, digging her Digimon Detector out of her backpack. "That stupid mutt has just played his last prank! Come on, everyone, he's not too far from here now. If we all ride in the truck, we can catch up to him!"

With a quick nod and a gesture to Frigimon to jump into the back of the truck, the three of them started up the truck and took off down the road, after the mischievous canine.

"Hey, Amanda," Frigimon asked through the open back window of the truck, "how do you know the Detector is working? I thought it was acting funny earlier."

"Well, I just got a clear signal now. My guess is that something about Bakemon's abilities affects his electromagnetic signature. The Detector just couldn't get a clear fix on him, which is why we didn't realize there were two digimon in that house instead of one."

"I… guess that explains it," he said, not quite understanding all of what she said.

"Hey, Penguinmon, or Frigimon or whatever?" Mr. Perkins said.

"Yeah?"

He took a deep breath. "I just wanted to say tanks."

"Tanks?"

"Yeah. Tanks for the help."

"Ohhh, you mean 'Thanks.' Well, you're welcome!"

"Ya little frigger, don't tell me how ta talk!" he growled, prompting Amanda to erupt into giggles as the two of them went at each other yet again.

* * *

Dogmon was fast, but even he had his limits. After being pursued for several minutes in the truck, he finally ran out of breath near the railroad tracks just outside of town. He stopped, panting hard and holding his side as the truck came to a stop and all three of them got out. Frigimon took the lead, Amanda backing him up with the Banstick, with Mr. Perkins holding up his crutch defensively.

"You… you just don't give up, do you?" Dogmon wheezed.

"You've attacked both of my friends," Frigimon said. "And played who knows how many pranks on the people in this town. If we don't stop you, you'll just hurt more people."

"Aw come on!" Dogmon laughed. "Can't you take a joke?"

"You're not funny, you little creep!" Amanda shouted.

Dogmon looked shocked at that declaration, then looked down solemnly, seemingly wounded to his very soul. It actually gave the group a moment's pause, wondering if perhaps this poor creature was just a misunderstood prankster who had let his desire to be amusing get the better of him. But then he snarled loudly, practically foaming at the mouth as he pulled another cartoonishly large, round bomb from an unseen pocket in his rubbery hide. "Well, at least I'm still breathing!" he shouted and bowled the bomb like a bowling ball, right through Frigimon's legs and coming to a stop at Amanda's feet.

"NO!" she shrieked, backing away, stumbling back as she did so.

"Amanda!" Mr. Perkins yelled leaping in front of her. With surprising agility both for his age and his injury, he held his crutch in midair and swung it at the bomb like a hitting a puck with a hockey stick. Frigimon almost instinctively ducked and the bomb sailed back at Dogmon as Mr. Perkins landed roughly on his side.

The cartoon hound's eyes went wide and bugged out (actually making an "AOOGAH!" sound as they did) as the bomb flew at him and then lodged itself in his toothy mouth. A second later, the fuse on the bomb ran out and it detonated loudly, engulfing him in a large cloud of flame and smoke. When it cleared, he was standing there unsteadily on his feet, his eyes rolling in opposite directions and his fur blackened and smoldering.

"Pow, right in the kisser!" Amanda yelled, unable to resist the cliché.

Dogmon grumbled and raised a single claw momentarily. "You… you…" he sucked in one last breath and wheezed out, "You're dessspicable!" spraying saliva before falling forward, planting his face into the ground.

"Amanda!" Frigimon shouted.

"I'm on it!" she said, rushing over with the Banstick. She placed it against the unconscious digimon and activated it, causing him to flash white and vanish as he was sent back.

"We did it!" Frigimon shouted, immediately glowing and returning to his Rookie form. He sat down hard on the ground, clearly worn out from the ordeal and from staying in his Champion form for so long. Amanda scooped him up and immediately began cuddling him, practically crushing the breath from his lungs.

"Penguinmon, that's awesome, we got two digimon in one night!"

"Easy, Amanda, I'm kinda sore," Penguinmon grunted.

"Oh, sorry. But still, just look at us! Beating down digimon, saving the town! We're going to be the best Digidestined partners ever!"

"Uh, Amanda?" Mr. Perkins said.

"Yes? What is it, Mr. Perkins?" She looked to him and saw that he was pointing a short distance away. She looked where he was pointing and her heart sank.

Standing not more than a few dozen meters from them was a man in shabby clothes and a sizable beard. She immediately recognized him as a homeless man that all the kids knew as Creepy Ted. Everyone knew him as a hobo who lived nearby the railroad tracks, occasionally wandering to nearby towns to take on small jobs or just freeload off anyone who felt sorry for him. And now he was flashing a wide, yellow grin.

"Well," Ted said, "isn't this a surprise!" He laughed heartily at that. Amanda had never spoken to the man but she was starting to get an idea of why he was called "Creepy" Ted.

"Amanda, get in the truck," Mr. Perkins said. She merely nodded and did as she was told. Mr. Perkins hobbled over to Ted and whispered, "Okay, listen. This ain't what ya tink."

"Well, I 'tink' this is you, a little girl, and some monsters. Am I wrong?"

"Look, that little girl is doin' important work—"

"Seems like," he said nonchalantly. "I heard the whole thing. Digidestined and all that. In this little Podunk town. Who knew?"

"Then I'd appreciate if ya'd keep this a secret, Mister…"

"Ted's fine. And your name's Perkins. The computer store guy, right? Well, that's no problem, I can keep secrets."

Mr. Perkins was relieved. He nodded and turned to go back to the truck when Ted said, "Only… secrets are usually kept 'cause they're valuable." Perkins winced. Ted continued, "So, if you feel like you've got a secret that is worth keeping, then maybe we should talk a bit about… you know… value."

Mr. Perkins turned back to him. "You're a drunk and nobody cares what you tink, ya lousy bum," he hissed, trying to call his bluff. "You tell folks and they won't believe ya."

"Maybe, maybe not, but how much do you and that rugrat want to risk that someone'll hear about it? I've been hearin' about all sorts of weird stuff goin' on in this town and sooner or later someone'll come around askin' some questions. Maybe even the government…"

Mr. Perkins swallowed. Penguinmon could be a little irritating, but he was starting to like the little bird and now he was with Amanda when she said she didn't want anyone to find out about him. Who knew if the government would let her keep him or put him in a science lab? Or worse.

"What do you want?" Mr. Perkins sighed.

Creep Ted grinned. "Well, now, let's see…"

**To be continued…**

* * *

_Next time: As Amanda and Penguinmon's secret is exposed, the pair will try to find a better way to keep their activities hidden. But how long can they keep their secret from the other citizens of Roxanne, especially Amanda's family?_

_Please leave a __**review**__! Feedback encourages me and I appreciate all comments and criticism equally!_


	5. Proxima Centauri

**A Small Girl in a Small Town**

**Part 5**

"**Proxima Centauri"**

* * *

Mr. Perkins rubbed his temples as he sat alone in his shop. He ran through a variety of emotions as he sat there, from anger, to worry, to relief. Though he had been and truthfully still _was_ skeptical about letting Amanda fight off dangerous monsters (and helping her do it, no less), he had been warming up to the idea that she was the right person for the job. Seeing Frigimon in action actually had made him more confident in their ability to fight off their foes as well.

But now that he felt truly invested in this little crusade, it was threatened by a bearded derelict with little regard for interdimensional monsters or protecting the town or anything else other than himself. Creepy Ted had seen them and now he held the power to expose them and their secret and there was no telling what it would result in for both of them. But Mr. Perkins had some guesses: a lockdown on Amanda, a one-way trip to a government research facility for Penguinmon, and probably a charge of Child Endangerment for himself at the very least. So what could he do when Ted made his demands other than to try and get him to negotiate? Even then, the number wasn't small, and it played over and over in his head as he sat there:

_"One hundred dollars per week,"_ he whispered. That was what it would cost for Ted to keep his silence. It could have been worse, but there was no guarantee that Ted wouldn't demand more later. He'd already demanded his first payment and Perkins was dreading seeing the man every week. Creepy Ted was universally loathed by nearly everyone in town because of his crudeness and parasitic nature. Money was borrowed and never returned. Money was given and work was not done. Unconvincing lies were told to gain sympathy and the next day the story changed. Keeping a man like Creepy Ted happy and quiet might not be so easy.

But at least his silence was for sale. Next time they might not be so lucky. While Perkins wasn't planning on telling Amanda how much Ted was blackmailing them for, they needed to come up with a new plan to make sure that this never happened again.

Slowly but surely, a plan took form and he began to sketch out some ideas on a notepad.

_I can't let anyting happen to those two,_ he thought, _but I can't protect 'em all the time. The best way to stop anyone from seeing 'em again is to just make it so nobody can figure out who they are…_

* * *

"So, explain to me what this is all about again?" Penguinmon asked, sitting on Amanda's bed as she finished stuffing things into her backpack.

"Okay, so yesterday, after we got home from church—"

"What's—"

"I will explain religion to you some other time, but one thing at a time, I'm in a hurry!" she shouted as she stuffed yet another volume of manga into her backpack. "Anyway, after we got home yesterday, Mr. Perkins called and talked to Papa. He convinced Papa to let me go with him on a business trip to Toronto!"

"And you're excited because Toronto is a big city with a lot of cool stuff to see, I get that," he said, irked that he couldn't come too.

"Sorry you have to stay here," she said, picking up on his disappointment, "but I doubt we'll be fighting any digimon in Toronto and keeping you hidden in a big city might be even tougher than it is here in Roxanne." She smiled at him and gave him a gentle pat on the head. "I'll make it up to you and bring you some tasty fish later."

He sighed, but returned her smile. "Okay," he relented. "But getting back to the point, so Mr. Perkins wants you to help him get some more computer parts and help carry them to the store, right?"

"Ah, but that's just the cover," she said, winking mischievously.

* * *

**The previous day…**

"Hello? Mr. Perkins?" she said, taking the phone from her father nervously.

_ "How ya getting' on, me dear?" _Mr. Perkins said.

"I'm fine, thanks. You and Papa sure were talking a long time. He sounded a little upset… you, um… did you talk to him about…"

_"What, Creepy Ted? No, that's still our little secret. And I talked to that bum and the little frigger… well, never mind, I took care of it."_

"Really? How?"

_"That's not really important. But here's the point: tomorrow, if you're up for it, we're going to drive to Toronto."_

"Toronto?!" she cried. "Oh my god, seriously?! That's awesome!"

_"Ah, jeez, don't scream into the phone!"_

"Oh, sorry," she said, lowering her voice. "So, are we going to look for computer parts?"

_"That's what I told yer father, and we will, but actually I've got another job in mind. See, if Ted was the only one we had to worry about, that's fine, but next time ya get spotted on one o' yer little adventures, tings won't go so easy fer us. So if we're going to hunt any more digimon, you're gonna need a costume."_

Amanda's eyes went wide. "A costume?"

_"Well, yes… I know, it's a pain in the rear, but—"_

"That's even _more _awesome!" she cried, her mind already racing with possibilities.

_ "Oh. Well… glad yer on board. I've done some diggin' around here and I tink we're only gonna find what we're after in the big city. We'll stop by this gigantic resale shop and pick us up someting fer ya. That'll let ya fight digimon without anyone knowin' it's you."_

"That's a really great idea! Plus, I could be like a superhero with a secret identity, oh, and I can design my own look and give myself a cool name and design some gadgets—"

_"Whoa, whoa, slow down me dear,"_ he said, chuckling at her enthusiasm. _"Just talk it over with yer parents and we'll leave early tomorrow mornin' and be gone most of the day. It could be a long trip, so bring some books."_

"Oh, I'll bring **plenty** of books, all right."

* * *

That was their conversation. But hearing all that didn't help Penguinmon understand one thing:

"What's with the comic books?" Penguinmon asked.

"They're _manga,_ for your information," she said testily, "and I'm bringing as many of these awesome books as I can so I can use them for reference!" She held up a volume of _Sailor Moon_ and pointed to the blond-haired, sparkly-eyed beauty on the front. "After all, if I'm going to design a superhero costume, I better be ready with some inspiration to become the coolest superhero Roxanne has ever seen!"

Penguinmon nodded approvingly, but then paused as a thought occurred to him. "Hey, wait… how many superheroes has Roxanne _ever_ seen?"

Amanda was undeterred, however. "To date, just two, if you count us."

"I'm not sure I would."

"Well, no point in criticizing now. I've got a feeling when all this is over, we'll be declared heroes, maybe even get a parade!"

Penguinmon shrugged. "If you say so."

"I do say so," she said, stuffing one last manga volume of an especially curvy heroine's journey into her backpack. "Okay, I'm leaving in just a few. Stay here and just try to keep out of trouble, all right?"

"I think I can manage that," Penguinmon replied.

"Great. See you real soon!"

And with that, she grabbed her backpack and walked out the door. Penguinmon heard her tell her parents goodbye and she walked outside to ride with Mr. Perkins to the big city.

* * *

"You've been to Toronto before, right?" Mr. Perkins asked.

"Yeah, but it was a while ago. I was just a little kid then."

Mr. Perkins held his tongue about commenting that she was _still_ a little kid. They were only an hour into their trip and that left at least two hours more. They'd left fairly early in the morning and the two of them probably hadn't gotten much sleep lately, since both were yawning.

"Mind if we stop fer some coffee and a light snack, me dear?" he asked.

"Oh, sure," she replied. Then she spotted a sign coming up by the side of the road and her eyes lit up. "Ooh, they have a Harvey's coming up!"

"Eh, I kinda prefer Tim Horton's if they've got one—"

"But but but _BUT,"_ she said, taking on a wild look, "Tim Horton's doesn't have it!"

Mr. Perkins looked at her sideways, a bit uncertainly. "Doesn't have… what?"

_"POUTINE!"_

* * *

Mr. Perkins hadn't been expecting to actually come and sit down in the restaurant, but Amanda had insisted due to how messy poutine actually was to eat. He supposed he preferred that she didn't eat it in the truck anyway for that reason. Still, while the coffee was passable, it was ordinary fare compared to what he might have gotten elsewhere.

But seeing Amanda ravenously devour the dish in front of her brought a smile to his face. It had been a while since he'd seen someone enjoy a meal so much, and it was all the more amusing considering that it was just some fast food.

"Oh, _Mon Dieu_ it's been _waaay_ too long," she managed to gasp between mouthfuls, drawing a chuckle from Mr. Perkins.

Perhaps a cultural note would be helpful here for those not from Canada: Harvey's is a fast food chain found in Canada. It is well known for its burgers and breakfast items and among the things it has on its menu is a French Canadian "delicacy" known as _poutine._ And what is this food that has captured our geeky heroine's heart?

French fries with gravy and cheese curds. It is melty, savory, salty, and good, though an acquired taste. It's also extremely unhealthy which is why her mother had more or less banned it from the Giroux household. This did not stop her husband or daughter from sneaking it into their diets whenever they had a chance.

"You're certainly enjoyin' it, aren't ya?" Mr. Perkins asked.

"OMNOMNOMNOM," came the reply.

"Heh. Ya know, this reminds me a bit o' me own… um…"

"Hrm?" she mumbled, hardly listening.

"Eh, it's nothing," he said with a sigh. "That stuff is gonna put ya to sleep in the car, though."

"I'll be fine," she said, but immediately betrayed herself with a yawn.

"Well, if ya want to sleep—"

"No, no, I want to look over some possible ideas in the truck. And we can talk about ideas for stopping the portals and stuff!"

"Well, in that case," Mr. Perkins said as he stood up, "I better get ya some coffee."

"What? But… I don't drink coffee!"

"I'll put sugar in it for ya."

"No, I mean… well, Mama never let me have any. She says it'll stunt my growth. And I don't want to stay short forever!"

Mr. Perkins rolled his eyes. Apparently Amanda's mother was a bit of a stickler when it came to her daughter's diet. "One cup of coffee isn't gonna do that. But it's your choice…"

Amanda paused and thought it over. "Well… I do want to stay awake. Okay, let's try it."

It was the worst idea Mr. Perkins would have that whole day.

* * *

Penguinmon stuck his head outside of Amanda's room. The rest of the Giroux family had gone on to other things, but he wanted to be cautious. After all, getting spotted by Creepy Ted had already caused them some problems, and there was no doubt that getting spotted by her parents would be far, far worse.

"Looks like nobody's home," he said to himself. He had been sitting around for about an hour. It was amazing how quickly he became bored without his partner. Formerly, he'd spent huge periods of time alone, just spending his days fishing and sleeping, making his way across his glacial home, following the migrating schools of fish as part of his nomadic lifestyle. Every so often he came across other digimon, of course, but there was little in the way of attachment there. But now…

_It's amazing. One hour without that little human and I feel like climbing the walls. I could watch more of that anime stuff she likes… but I think I have a better idea._

He made his way out of Amanda's room, down the hall to Philipe's room. This was his first time actually going in. He didn't quite understand the nature of this brother/sister relationship, but it was clear that the two of them spent a lot of time antagonizing each other. Amanda had indicated that a lot of old baby books were still kept in Philipe's room and these might be helpful with learning to read. He didn't quite see the point in learning, but he supposed that it was important to his partner, so that was a good enough reason. Besides, it might be an interesting way to kill some time.

Philipe's room was smaller and, he noted, far messier than Amanda's room (and that was saying something). Action figures and toys and clothes and candy wrappers littered the floor. Posters of superheroes and sports stars were on the walls and everything seemed to be in disorder… except for the bookcase in the corner of the little room. Judging by how pristine and undisturbed it looked, Phil was apparently not much of a reader. He waddled over to the bookcase and flipped through the books until he recognized one as a thin book with the English letters standing out boldly on the front.

"This looks right," he said to himself, sitting down on the floor and opening the book to the first page. "Okay… this thing… and an apple," he said, noting the large _A_ on the page and the picture of the apple. "So… this thing makes a sound like 'aah.' Okay, let's see where we go from there…"

* * *

Mr. Perkins had it wrong. He knew that now. He figured Anne Giroux must merely be a health nut for forbidding poutine and caffeine from her family's diet. He was only half correct: the poutine was indeed banned because it was unhealthy; but caffeine was banned for Amanda not because of worries about stunted growth, but because the substance apparently had a horribly pronounced effect on her daughter, as evidenced by the fact that she hadn't really shut up for the last two hours.

"Ohmygodohmygodohmygod, lookatallthesebuildiiiiings! They're so gi-freakin-gantic I just want to run up each one and then back down and look out all the windows and maybe throw some paper airplanes off them! Maybe model planes, NO! _Remote control_ planes and they'll have little machine guns that go _pewpewpewpew_ although that sounds more like lasers than like bullets, ha ha, doesn't that sound _awesome?!_ Right, Mr. Perkins?"

"We're almost there, Amanda," he said wearily.

"There? Wait, here? No, wait, we passed it," she said, eyeing each building as they passed it on the busy street through downtown Toronto. "Think they have comic book stores here? Do they sell manga? Can we stop by one?"

"I don't—"

"Or maybe a video store! Ooh, ooh, I'll bet this place has video stores that sell _nothing but anime._ Wow, why didn't you tell me about that?!"

"What? Why would—"

"Hey do you think I could make, like, a giant robot if we found the right parts at the store today? We could _totally_ fight digimon with a gigantic robot, and that way Penguinmon wouldn't have to fight by himself!"

"I—"

"I mean like a robot from like _Evangelion!_ Oh, or from _Gundam Wing._ But they have to come with the cute pilots or else no deal! That's the only way—"

_"Amanda!"_

She stopped and looked at him, her expression bug-eyed and her posture jittery and shaking. "Yyyyyeaaaahh?"

"We're here!" he gasped. "We're… _finally_… here."

"Oh." She looked out the window and saw that they'd parked in the side lot of a sizable building that said "Toronto Resale" on the sign in front. She immediately leaped from the truck, dashing off before Mr. Perkins had a chance to stop her. "I'm gonna make my new costume! It's gonna be awesome! So so _**so **_awesome!"

Mr. Perkins let out another sigh and slumped in his seat. "Oh my nerves," he said. "I can't believe she talked about anime and video games and robots for the last two hours." Reluctantly, he undid his seatbelt and got out of the truck, trudging to the store and entering through the front door. He didn't see Amanda though he heard her voice chattering incessantly as she made her way through the long aisles in the spacious warehouse-like store.

He went up to the front desk and asked, "Excuse me. Did ya see a little girl with glasses come in here?"

"Oh, yeah," said the clerk with a chuckle. "She dragged off one of our sales reps. She wanted to look at 'sailor _fuku.'"_

"At… what?"

"Japanese schoolgirl outfits. I guess she wants to cosplay."

"Cos… what?!"

"You know… dress up like someone from a show or comic. We get a lot of people like that. I'm not sure what we have, but… Oh, I'm sorry, are you her dad or something?"

"Or someting," he grumbled. "You know, that's fine. Let her look around, I've got me own ideas fer her costume."

"Oh!" said the clerk with a smile. "It's so nice that you're helping her come up with a costume! Is it for a convention?"

"Uh… sure, we'll go with that." He rolled his eyes as he walked away. _Great… never in me life did I tink I'd find a place where the little oddball was considered __ordinary__._

* * *

"'And… this mess is… so big… / And so… d-deep… and so tall, / We cannot p-pick it… oop?' No, 'up! / There is no… w… w… way at all.'"

Penguinmon felt he was making real progress. He already knew how to speak, so getting that the letters made sounds made it a simple matter to put the letters together to make sounds. Just the same, he needed to practice sounding out words if he was going to learn to read. So, luckily, after he got the hang of the letters, he had plenty of other children's books to go through. He didn't quite get who this 'Cat in the Hat' creature was, but at least he used small words. The rhyming helped too.

"I don't know who this Seuss guy is, but he's a genius!"

Just then, he heard a door slam and a voice call, "Mama? Papa? I'm home! Bobby wouldn't let me play with his Batman guys so I told him to eat boogers and came home!"

_Oh crap, it's Amanda's brother! Gotta get back to her room!_ he thought, getting up and running for the door. _No, wait, the books! I better put them back or he'll see them out of place!_ As quickly as he could, he put the books back where he found them and turned to run back for the door when he heard footsteps rapidly approaching. _Oh no, too late! Stuffed animal impression, don't fail me now!_

As Penguinmon went limp and fell backwards, letting his expression go blank, Philipe entered the room, roughly dropping his backpack full of toys and things on the floor. He only had to take a few steps before he noticed the large "toy" in the middle of the floor. He made a face and picked Penguinmon up, holding him up and eyeing him with disdain.

"Sis!" he called. "Sis, what's your dumb toy doing in my room?" he called. When he got no response, he carried Penguinmon to his sister's room. He seemed surprised to see that nobody was there. "Sis? Are you home? I'm in your roo~oom, Sis!" he called. No response.

_Good. At least he'll just leave me in her room, _Penguinmon thought.

Clearly, Penguinmon did not know Philipe Giroux very well.

Philipe went over to one of Amanda's posters and sneered at the anime character doing an action pose on it. Still carrying Penguinmon under one arm, he pulled out a crayon from his pocket and drew a curly mustache on the character's face. "Ha ha! That'll teach her to leave her junk in my room!" he laughed.

_Oh you little punk, she's going to __**murder**__ you when she sees that._

Phil apparently wasn't done. He put Penguinmon on top of Amanda's dresser and looked at her mirror. He made several faces, bugging his eyes out by pulling down his eyelids, making duck faces, crossing his eyes, things like that.

_What the heck is he doing?!_ Penguinmon wondered.

Then Phil put his hands up over his eyes, making circles over them with his thumb and index finger to resemble a pair of glasses. "Look at me, I'm Amanda! I'm so smart! Anime is cool and I spend all day thinking about Japan and boys and computers and stuff instead of playing with dolls like a real girl!" And then his expression turned somewhat bitter as he continued. "And all my teachers loooove me. Everyone thinks I'm sooo smart, and Mama and Papa always want to hear what I did in school!" He lowered the "glasses" and rolled his eyes. "'Oh, you're Amanda's little brother? You must be a great student like her! I bet you're smart like she is! Your sister used to love the computer lab, do you know how this thing works?'" He sighed. "Stupid Sis… stupid teachers… stupid computers…"

_Wow,_ Penguinmon thought, trying hard to keep his expression blank and not betray his feelings of sympathy. _Poor kid. I guess it must be rough having a genius for a sister._

Philipe sniffed for a moment then sneezed, causing a hanging globule of snot to pop out of his nose. He looked around for tissue, but when he didn't see one, he grinned evilly and grabbed Penguinmon, wiping his nose on his head before setting him back down. "Stupid Sis's toy," he chuckled.

_Never mind,_ Penguinmon thought with a mixture of rage and disgust._ This kid is a supervillain in training._

Philipe walked out of Amanda's room, purposefully knocking over some of her books and figurines on her shelves as he walked out.

_Okay, you little brat,_ Penguinmon said, ruffling his feathers, _it's bad enough that Ted guy is toying with us, but __**nobody**__ messes with my partner in her own home!_

* * *

"Let's see here then," Mr. Perkins said, examining the item of clothing in front of him. "This ting looks like it's small enough fer Amanda. Not sure who used to own it, but how can I be sure it'll fit her? She's got her own ideas, it looks like…"

"Mr. Perkins, Mr. Perkins!" Amanda called. He turned and saw her coming, pushing a shopping cart that was absolute _full_ of various items of clothing. "Ohmygod ohmygod ohmygod you were right, there is so much awesome stuff here!"

_Looks like the caffeine is still in her system,_ he thought. Outwardly, he just said, "Me dear, what exactly _is_ all this stuff?"

"Oh!" she said, putting down her backpack and opening it. She pulled out several volumes of manga. Several pages were bookmarked and she showed him one after another. He slowly began to realize that Amanda had a very different idea in mind for her disguise.

"Amanda, these are all…"

"Magical Girls!" she cried. "There's Sailor Moon and Card Captor Sakura and a bunch of other ones!"

"So… all this stuff is…?"

"Well, just look!" she exclaimed. Inside the shopping cart were dresses and schoolgirl outfits and lace and all manner of frilly things.

"Amanda, no offense or notin', but I don't tink I've ever seen ya wear clothing like this in yer entire life."

"Ah, but that's why it's a perfect disguise! For ordinary hanging out, working on computers, stuff like that, I prefer to dress comfortably. _However,_" she said, overemphasizing the word loud enough to draw attention from other shoppers, "as a magical defender of justice against evil, I can look glamorous and inspirational to the people of Roxanne!"

"Amanda, keep yer voice down," he hissed.

"Oh! Oh right," she said. Another shopper walked by, giving them both a sideways glance. Amanda hurriedly (and futilely) covered the cart full of clothes with her arms and yelled, "Don't look! It's a _secret!"_ at the woman, who gave a start and then pushed on ahead. "Ha! See, Mr. Perkins? Identity exposure averted!"

Mr. Perkins rubbed his face in exasperation. "Uh… look, Amanda, all this stuff… it's very nice, but…" Mr. Perkins wasn't sure how to tell Amanda this, but all these dresses and costumes and things were a long way from what he had in mind.

"Oh, the price? Is it too expensive? I'm sorry Mr. Perkins!" she cried.

"Well, that's not the only ting, it's—"

"Tell you what, let me have the keys and I'll go wait in the truck and you can just surprise me with whatever you pick out. Hey, you'll be sort of like the Tomoyo to my Sakura! Minus the _shoujo ai _subtext."

"I'm the _who_ to your _what_ now?"

He didn't quite understand, but he gave her the keys and then that just left him with the stack of clothing. He waited until she was gone and then examined some of the tags on her choices. "Hm… that's her size, eh? Well, this jumpsuit should fit…" He used the rest of the frilly things for reference as he went from clothes rack to clothes rack, picking out things that seemed more practical. As he was moving to the cash register with his own selections, he spotted something that was absolutely perfect. "Now _that_ is a good way to disguise her if ever I've seen one!"

"Oh, hello sir!" the clerk from earlier said as he approached. "Did your little friend find what she was looking for? Oh, these are…"

"Yeah, she ain't gonna be happy about these, but this is what we're after," Mr. Perkins said.

"What… um, what's she going to cosplay as with _these?" _the clerk said, showing her disapproval.

Perkins thought for a minute, then gave a wry grin. "Let's call it an original character."

* * *

"Hello?" Philipe said, answering the phone. "Who? … Oh, right, hold on." He put the phone down and hollered for his mother, who'd come home not long after his intrusion into Amanda's room. "Mama! It's Amanda's weirdo friend!"

His mother came and picked up the phone as he returned to the living room to watch TV. He heard her pick it up as he went. "Hello? … Oh, hello Yvonne. … No, I'm afraid she's gone to Toronto. … It's part of her part time job with Mr. Perkins. … I'm not sure when she'll be back, but I'm sure she'd love to hang out later. … Um, I'm not certain why she's been so busy, but— … Well, that's true, but— … Yvonne, I'm sorry, but you'd have to ask Amanda…"

Phil paid it little mind as he returned to his cartoons. He'd been eating a plate of apple slices as he watched TV. There were seven on the plate when he went to answer the phone, but now that he was back, he saw only five. He cocked his head to one side, reasonably sure he hadn't eaten them and forgotten.

"Mama? Mama? Did you eat some of my apples?"

Anne Giroux waved him away as she peered out from the kitchen, where she was dealing with Yvonne. Phil shrugged and sat back down on the couch. It was then that he looked over and saw Penguinmon, the "toy," sitting perfectly still on his father's chair. That was even stranger than the missing apples, since he was sure that he'd left the thing in his sister's room.

Still, he decided to ignore it and go back to watching cartoons. But then he heard a voice, barely a whisper, utter the following: _"I saw what you did."_

Philipe turned his head at the sound. The toy still sat there, perfectly motionless, so he glanced around, wondering where the noise had come from. His mother was still in the kitchen, and he was sure it hadn't come from the TV, and there was no one else in the house that he knew of. He looked at Penguinmon suspiciously and lifted the bird up, examining him to see if there was a speaker or a pull-string, or something else that would have caused it to make a sound. When he saw none, he put the toy back down and walked to the kitchen.

"Um, Mama?" he asked.

"Just a sec, honey," she replied, turning back to the phone. "Okay, Yvonne, I'm sorry, but there's nothing I can do about that. … Yes, I understand. … Okay, do you want me to give Amanda a message? … Really? Are you sure?" She made a face as Yvonne apparently made some irritable response. "Right, okay, I got it. Goodbye." She sighed and turned back to Philipe. "Yes, honey?"

"Um… does Sis's toy talk?"

"Well, some of them do—"

"No, that dumb blue bird she got the other day."

His mother blinked. "I don't believe so. I think it's just an ordinary stuffed toy."

"Did you put it in the living room?"

"What? No, I haven't touched it."

"Is anyone else home today?"

"You know there isn't, Phil. What's this all about?" she asked.

Phil made a face, frustrated with the lack of answers. "Never mind," he said irritably, leaving his mother to wonder what had gotten into him as he went back to the living room.

When he returned, however, the scene had changed again. This time, there were only _three _apple slices left on his plate. And the little bird was nowhere to be seen.

Now he began to go from merely being confused to actually being nervous. He looked around, peering behind the couch and chair, looking for the toy and whoever had eaten his apple slices. He even went around to the TV and looked behind it, to the narrow space behind the cabinet where the VCR, DVD, and the family movie collection were housed. It was a narrow space, to be sure, but he needed to check anyway.

_"You shouldn't touch other people's things, little boy."_

Phil gave a short yelp and turned around, and his heart was pounding as he saw that now Penguinmon had reappeared, the "toy" now sitting in his spot on the couch. And now there was only _one_ apple slice left on his plate. Though the toy was motionless, it was in position to stare right at him, its gaze almost piercing with its large, orange eyes staring him down.

"Mama!" he screamed, running from the room.

As soon as he was gone, Penguinmon blinked a few times. It hurt his eyes to stare out so blankly, but he chuckled as he ate the last of Phil's apple slices. "Heh heh heh. Let's see how long we can keep this up…"

* * *

Amanda was slowly coming down off of her caffeine high as they drove to the computer parts store. Mr. Perkins normally ordered the parts he needed out of a catalog, but he wanted to come and personally examine a few items from the larger distributor before he made a new order. He hated to admit it, but having Amanda's input was actually going to be a bonus. The girl could be eccentric and today she'd been hyperactive to the point of obnoxiousness, but he had to give her credit: she knew her stuff when it came to technology.

"This graphics card," the sales representative was saying, "is just great. Good for the price, good speeds, should be no problem."

"Does it only come for an AGP slot?" Amanda asked.

The sales rep raised an eyebrow at the precocious little girl accompanying Mr. Perkins. He'd worked with Perkins before, but this was the first time he'd ever seen her.

"She knows her stuff," Perkins said. "But honestly, me dear, that'd be preferable, wouldn't it? Better speed, and it wouldn't be competing for bandwidth like on the PCI slot."

"For people like _us_, yes, of course it would be better," Amanda said, rolling her eyes. "But for the average person in Roxanne, a lot of them aren't going to buy a 3D graphics card anyway, and the ones who will buy one won't spend the extra money on an AGP card. Plus how many of them have enough memory?"

The sales rep nodded, smiling in spite of himself. "Fair question," he said. "Well, they do make a PCI version of this one, but it might put a heavy demand on their on board memory as it is. They might have to upgrade if they've got an older system either way."

"Good to know, good to know," Amanda said. "Gee, Mr. Perkins, you know what kind of computers people in town have better than I do. What do you think?"

"Well, let me read the specs fer both and maybe I can figure out which one's better before I place an order. I could maybe offer both out of my store, but there's only so much shelf space."

The sales rep nodded and went to retrieve the PCI model from the back room. As he did, Amanda took a deep breath and looked all around her, her eyes going from one thing to another as she took in the sight of all the technology to be found in the large computer parts store.

"Oh man, this place is even cooler than your store, Mr. Perkins!" she said. Then she realized what she said and put up her hands defensively. "I mean, not that your store isn't cool! It is! It's just—"

"Easy there, me dear," he laughed. "It's a small town computer repair shop, so it's a fair point. Not much comparison between me and these guys now, is there?"

"Right. Just the same, though," she said, squatting to examine something in the glass display case's bottom row. "Oh man, what I wouldn't give for one of _those_. Too bad it costs more than my entire rig at home."

"I find that hard to believe."

"Tch. Playing Dr. Frankenstein with your store's leftovers and scraps collected from other people's old computers and stuff has kept it very cheap. It can do a lot, but my computer always sounds like it's on the verge of blowing up."

Mr. Perkins chuckled at that. He was about to comment when Amanda suddenly glanced across the room and her eyes went wide. "Is that… is that sales rep actually trying to hook up an ATX power supply to that guy's Dell tower?!"

"Uh… I tink he is. So?"

"So he's about to fry it!" she shouted, immediately bolting toward the offending sales rep. "Hey you dummy, stop right there!"

Mr. Perkins had to laugh as she ran out of earshot, barely making out what she was saying as she energetically and frantically explained herself to the sales rep and customer, both of whom wore bewildered expressions. The customer was even looking around uneasily, almost as if he thought he was being filmed for a prank show or something.

"Here's that part you wanted," the sales rep said as he returned. "Hm? What happened to your assistant?"

"I tink she's givin' one o' yer workers some pointers," Perkins replied, turning back to the rep. "Now let's take a look at— wait a minute… what is that?"

As Mr. Perkins pointed, the sales rep turned to an item that had been placed on one of the shelves on the back wall. "What, this?" he asked. Mr. Perkins nodded. "This is a voice modulator device. You speak into it and it comes out the speaker sounding all weird. It's kinda neat, it comes with different voices and such, but I guess not many people have a use for it. We keep it around only because kids making short films or doing costumes for one reason or another want it."

Mr. Perkins nodded, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. "Really, now? Well… how much, exactly?"

A few short purchases later, he rejoined Amanda, who was still ranting about whatever she'd run off about in the first place.

"I can't believe it! How could they not know about Dell's proprietary hardware?"

Mr. Perkins made a face. "Er… okay, to be fair, me dear, I'm not sure what you're on about either."

Amanda stared at him. "But Mr. Perkins, you know so much about computers!" she cried.

"Well, I'm not a friggin' encyclopedia. Why don't you just tell me?"

"Oh. Sorry," she said, laughing nervously. "Well, Dell computers have their own power supply. But if you want to upgrade or replace it, you have to go to Dell directly. You can't just buy one and connect it normally because the pins on the connectors don't line up right. If you try, you might end up shorting out the power supply and frying it. You have to buy a specialized adapter. They have them online, actually."*

Mr. Perkins whistled, impressed with this little bit of knowledge as they got back into the truck. "That's good to know, me dear," he said. "I tink there's plenty of folks back in Roxanne with Dell computers. That might help me out one of these days."

She smiled sweetly, glad to finally be of help to her mentor, and he supposed to himself that he was actually quite glad that she'd come along after all.

"I got one more surprise for ya, Amanda," he said.

"What's that?"

"I'm takin' ya to an eyeglasses place and getting' ya a pair of sports goggles."

Her jaw dropped open. "G-g-goggles?!"

"Well, can't have ya out there fightin' digimon and risk yer glasses comin' off, so—"

"Oh wow… I'm going to be like Canada's Taichi Kamiya! That's awesome!"

Mr. Perkins shrugged. "Well… as long as yer happy."

* * *

"Phil, come on, you're a big boy, you know stuffed animals can't talk," Mrs. Giroux said.

"I'm not lying, Mama! This toy can talk! I heard it!" Phil insisted. "It said, 'I'm watching you!'"

Anne Giroux sighed. "I knew I shouldn't have let you watch that scary TV show the other day. Phil, that was just make believe. This is just a cute toy. Come on, look at it." She held Penguinmon out, wiggling him in the air to make him 'waddle.' "'Hello, Philipe!'" she said, talking for him in a cutesy high-pitched voice. "'I'm just here to be your friend!'"

"Get back!" Phil screamed, stepping away.

"Oh for… fine, Phil, let's just put the toy back. Wait… come to think of it, wasn't this in your sister's room?"

"It was, but it came out!"

Mrs. Giroux narrowed her eyes. "Philipe, were you in your sister's room?"

Phil shifted nervously. "N-no…"

"Philipe, are you lying to me?"

"No, I'm not!" he cried. "And I didn't knock over her stuff, either!"

_You're a bad, bad liar, kid,_ Penguinmon thought.

Mrs. Giroux made a face and led her protesting little boy by the hand back to Amanda's room. When they got there, she saw the figurines and things knocked on the floor. "Oh, Philipe, why did you do that?"

"I… I…" Phil stammered. "I don't know," he answered.

"Well, you're going to put these things back on the shelf and when Sis gets back, you are going to apologize for going in her room and messing with her things."

"But Mama—"

"Don't argue with me, Philipe Sebastian Giroux! I will ground you and there will be no TV for a week if you don't!"

Phil whined, but began to pick up the figures and models and place them back on the shelf. Meanwhile, Mrs. Giroux placed Penguinmon back on Amanda's bed, almost as a watchman to keep her son in line.

As soon as she left the room, Penguinmon whispered. _"And clean the poster too."_

Phil turned around and stared fearfully at the "toy," but Penguinmon was too good at faking the blank expression. He shivered as he went back to work, putting the figurines back with care. "O-okay, Mr. Penguin."

_"And bring me some sardines when you're done."_

"Yes, sir!"

* * *

"Almost home, Amanda," Mr. Perkins said as they passed the sign for Roxanne.

"Mm, good," she muttered, rousing from her light nap. It had been a long day and the trip back from Toronto had been much quieter than the trip there. After the long, exhausting trip, Amanda had nodded off occasionally. Still, Mr. Perkins thought it was actually pretty adorable that she was wearing the sports goggles they'd purchased. The goggles were tinted slightly, made for skiing or even surfing, something where bright light could be blinding. They hid her eyes and she loved them the instant she put them on. What goggles had to do with being a Digidestined was beyond him, but Amanda clearly thought it made something official.

"I'm going to need those goggles, me dear," Mr. Perkins said.

"No way, I'm wearing these from now on!"

"Now now, we need 'em fer your costume," he reminded her. "Give 'em here. Don't want ya to blow yer cover."

She sighed. "I guess you're right." She took off the goggles and handed them back to Mr. Perkins, replacing them with her trusty black-rimmed glasses. At least her parents had replaced her lost pair the other day and she didn't have to wear her old prescription anymore.

They pulled up to her house and she got out. "Thanks, Mr. Perkins! I'll come by tomorrow to see the," she looked around to make sure no one else was in earshot, "the _you-know-what_ tomorrow." She winked as she closed the door, running back up to her house.

Mr. Perkins sighed as he drove away. He still had a bit of work to do that night to bring the costume together, and the next day things were going to get ugly when the girl saw the finished product.

Little did he know that things were actually going to get even uglier than he suspected.

* * *

"So you're missing a few sheep," said Will Hamilton, Roxanne's chief animal control officer.

"That's right," said Mr. Read. The two of them were standing at the site of his farm just outside of town, his herd of sheep milling about and bleating loudly as the two men conversed that evening.

"But nobody heard anything?"

"No, we were out picking up some things from town. We called you as soon as we got back and found… well, all this!"

"And you suspect… wolves?" Mr. Hamilton asked uncertainly.

"That would explain the blood and wool on the ground," Read said. "Not to mention a few of them have dropped dead!"

"Well, I'm sure you're right that something spooked them," Hamilton said. "But that doesn't explain the busted fence over there."

The fence in question was a heavy wooden fence that was high enough to prevent the sheep from jumping over it. Whether or not wolves would be so bold as to jump over it was one thing. But regardless, Hamilton was certain that wolves wouldn't smash the fence down. And it was unlikely that they'd kill and make off with more than one or two sheep. But Read counted four missing. Read's son, who was a year younger than Amanda, was nearby, investigating the broken fence and his expression at the mention of wolves had likewise been skeptical. If a nine-year-old thought it sounded fishy, then it was a good bet that wolves weren't the culprit.

"Okay, let's look at this more logically," said Hamilton. "It is possible that someone broke the fence and made off with some of your sheep. Rustlers or something like that. People might break down the fence, but there's no way a wolf did that."

"But why would they kill the sheep?" Read demanded. "No human did this!" he said, pointing to the blood and bits of wool on the ground.

"You're right," Hamilton said patiently. "More likely some animal came after the rustlers did and killed one more sheep and dragged it into the woods. I can investigate the animal that killed the sheep, but you better call the police if you've been robbed."

"Uh, Dad? Mr. Hamilton?" Read's son called.

"Not now, we're talking," Read said, waving his son off.

"But I found something! You have to see this!"

The two of them walked over to where Read's son was standing and gawked at what they saw on the ground. It was a footprint, that much was clear, but it was massive. Any one of them could have fit their foot inside it. It was three-toed and looked clawed and it sank deep into the damp mud. The lines and odd texture on the side of the imprint gave the impression of something reptilian with pebbled skin.

"That's… um…" Hamilton struggled for words.

"It looks like a dinosaur print!"

"It's not," said Hamilton. That was impossible. But just the same, he had to admit, to himself at least, that it did in fact look a _lot_ like a dinosaur print. "Just… wait here a moment," he told them both. He shined his flashlight into the nearby woods, walking to them and entering the thick underbrush carefully. He went in a few dozen yards when he saw some odd markings on the trees. They had been scratched, the bark roughly rubbed off, but at a height of 3 meters. He occasionally saw such things made by animals rubbing themselves on the bark of trees, but there was absolutely no type of animal in the area that was large enough to make markings like that.

He walked back to Read and his son. "Okay, listen," he said. "I know what we're all thinking, but it's not."

"It's not... a dinosaur?" Read's son asked.

He winced at the outward mention of it. "No, that's… that's impossible."

"I heard once that there were dinosaurs in the Bible—"

"It's NOT a dinosaur," Hamilton insisted. "Listen, someone's playing an elaborate prank. Some hoax to get attention. They did a pretty good job, but I'm betting someone just wants to get the town on the news. Well, I'm going to get to the bottom of this before we get made a laughing stock."

Read nodded. "All right. I'll keep quiet about this for now, but you better be right about this, Will."

"Relax," Hamilton said. "What, you think the town is actually in danger of being attacked by a dinosaur?"

* * *

"Stupid Sis…" Phil grumbled to himself as he lay in bed.

He'd gotten a real talking to that night and Amanda had been absolutely livid at the dining room table when he'd been forced to tell that he'd gone into her room and messed with her things.

* * *

"What do you mean you went into my room?!" she demanded. Nobody quite noticed she seemed more fearful than angry, however. Phil didn't suspect that Amanda was actually more worried about Penguinmon being discovered than about her figurines, but once it was apparent that nothing had happened, she immediately became angier. "You little brat! What were you thinking?!"

"Amanda, honey," her mother said, trying to soothe her, "Philipe cleaned everything up and he apologized."

"Yeah, I already said I'm sorry about your stupid Japanimation stuff!"

"Phil—"

"It's anime, not Japanimation!"

"Amanda—"

"Who cares!" Phil cried. "You think you're so smart, but you're still a dumb kid like me only everyone knows you're a weirdo and nobody likes you but the dumb old teachers!"

"Phil!" Mr. Giroux said, interjecting himself in between this family exchange. He looked over and noticed the subtle, burning rage and note of pain on his daughter's face and felt his own temper flaring. Containing it barely, he glared at Philipe, who shrank from his gaze. "Now… you apologize to your sister."

"I'msorry," he grumbled.

"Say it like you _mean_ it, Phil."

And then Philipe's anger flew out of control. _"No!_ I don't care what you say, I'm not sorry!" He flipped his dinner plate over, dumping its contents on the table.

"Philipe, that's enough!" Mr. Giroux shouted. "Go to your room!"

Phil ran from the table. Little did he know that Penguinmon had snuck out of Amanda's room to better hear the exchange that had gone on.

* * *

That had been the scene earlier. The six-year-old boy, constantly in his sister's shadow, now wept to himself in the darkness. "I hope she feels bad," he grumbled. "Stupid Sis. Mama and Papa always take her side."

Then, in the darkness of his room, he saw the door creak open and a dim light spill into his room. A familiar avian silhouette appeared momentarily before the door shut.

"No…" he breathed. "No, leave me alone!"

_"Shh… just stay quiet,"_ Penguinmon whispered in the darkness. Phil cautiously reached for the lamp by his bed. _"Don't turn on the light. I want to talk to you."_

Phil ducked his head under his covers and trembled as the "living toy" climbed up onto his bed, hearing him get nearer and nearer. "Please don't hurt me!" he begged through his tears and sniffles.

_"Relax, I'm not going to hurt you."_

Phil wasn't sure if he believed him. "R-really?"

_"Yes, really. Don't be afraid,"_ he said gently.

"Who… who are you?"

_"Well, let's just say I'm a visitor here to help your sister. Like a guardian angel or something."_

Phil was quiet for a moment. "Help her? Help her how?"

_"Well, your sister needs help with a lot of things. Maybe some things you don't understand very well. But it would be nice if she didn't have to worry about problems with her own family. That's why I want you to try to be nicer to her and respect her privacy."_

Phil nodded under his covers. "Okay… but she's still a dork."

Penguinmon laughed in spite of himself. _"Yes, she is. But you're luckier than you know. I think she wishes sometimes that she had more friends and a normal life like you. Don't worry about your teachers; just be your own person. Can you do that for me, Philipe?"_

Philipe nodded again. "Okay. I'm… I'm sorry I got boogers on you, Mr. Penguin."

_"That's okay."_

"Um… does Sis know about you? Did she send you to talk to me?"

Penguinmon thought for a moment. _"She doesn't know I'm here, so you should treat me just like a normal toy around her. And I only came because I wanted to help you,"_ he answered, thinking it best.

"Oh. Okay."

Penguinmon hopped off the bed and waddled over to the door. As he left, he heard Philipe call out, "Mr. Penguin?"

_"Yes?"_

"Um… thanks."

Penguinmon smiled as he snuck out. _"You're welcome, little brother."_

* * *

The next day, Amanda ate her breakfast somewhat somberly. She got up late and was still a little tired from her journey to Toronto. "Ugh… so this is why adults drink coffee," she said to herself. The rest of the family had already eaten, her father had gone to work, and her mother was vacuuming in the living room.

"Hey, uh, Sis?" Philipe said as he entered the dining room.

Amanda made a face. "What do you want?" she growled.

"Um… I'm sorry."

Amanda stopped in mid-chew of her toast to look up at her little brother. The little boy wouldn't look directly at her out of embarrassment, but he seemed somewhat genuine. Just the same, she asked him to repeat himself. "What was that?"

"I said I'm sorry," he said. "I'm sorry for being mean and calling you a dork, even though you are."

It wasn't much, but for Philipe, it was just this side of miraculous. "Um… well, thank you Phil. I, uh…" She honestly had no idea how to reply. Philipe rarely apologized for anything. "Did Mama or Papa put you up to this?"

Philipe subconsciously looked around, half expecting to see Penguinmon watching him from a corner, but the little bird was nowhere in sight.

"No, they didn't make me," he said. "Look, Sis, I said I'm sorry, can you just say it's okay already!"

Amanda laughed. She couldn't blame him. It was a little awkward for both of them. "Sure. You're forgiven, Phil."

"Okaygoodthanksbye!" he said and ran from the room, relieved it was over with.

As soon as he left, Mrs. Giroux entered. "Oh, did you two have a fight again?" she sighed, seeing Philipe run from the room.

"Actually, he just apologized," Amanda said.

"Wait, he did? Our Phil?"

"I'm as surprised as you are," she chuckled.

"Well…" then she smiled. "Well, good for him. Oh, before I forget again, Yvonne called you yesterday while you were on your trip."

"Oh, really?" Amanda brightened at that. "Did she leave a message?"

"No, she asked me not to, but… well, I think she's feeling a bit neglected."

"Oh." Amanda nodded solemnly. "Okay, I'll call her after I talk to Mr. Perkins today."

"What, again?" Mrs. Giroux asked. "You just spent all day with him yesterday!"

"I know, but I promised to help him out this morning. Besides, it's part of my punishment."

By this point, pretty much the entire Giroux family had forgotten that this part-time job was supposed to be a punishment. That made it difficult to tell her not to go to Mr. Perkins's place or risk looking wishy-washy about their arrangements. Anne Giroux wanted to tell her to call her friend immediately, but she supposed this was her own choice and none of her business. Just the same…

"Okay. I don't know what little projects you two are working on, but don't forget to call Yvonne when you're done."

"I won't!" Amanda assured her, finishing her toast and guzzling the last of her orange juice. "Okay, Mama, I need to get cleaned and dressed and then we're off!"

"All right, honey, but— wait, 'we?'"

"I," she said quickly. "I said 'I.'"

As she went to her room to set her clothes out on the bed, she saw Penguinmon eating from a tin of sardines (the one he told Philipe to get for him). "Where did you get those?" she asked.

"I… just snuck a few out of the pantry last night," he lied.

"Jeez, be careful about that!" she admonished.

"I will. And don't forget you owe me some fish after leaving me all alone yesterday," he said.

"Oh, that's right," she said, smacking her own forehead. "Let's get some later today. For now we need to go meet Mr. Perkins. I can't wait to see my awesome new costume!" She selected a few more items before offhandedly remarking, "By the way, Philipe apologized for being such a little butthole yesterday."

"Really?" Penguinmon replied innocently. "Well, good for him."

* * *

A short time later, Mr. Perkins heard a bell ring, alerting him that someone had entered his shop. "Ah, welcome back, me dear," he said.

"Is it ready?!" she asked excitedly.

"Yes, yes," he said, locking the front door to prevent anyone from interrupting them. He put a sign on his door that said "Taking a Break, Be Back Soon!" and walked upstairs with her. In the center of the room, covered with a blanket, was, she correctly guessed, her costume placed on a cheap mannequin. "I got the mannequin a while back in college. Found it in a dumpster, but never had a use fer the damn ting until today."

"Ooh, ooh, let me see, let me see!" she insisted.

"All right. Now… keep an open mind," he said, sliding the sheet off it. "You see, I was figurin' that the best costume—"

"Ugh!" she shouted. "What the heck is _that?!"_

* * *

Meanwhile, at Amanda's home, the phone began to ring. Mrs. Giroux answered it. "Hello?"

_"Oh. Hi Mrs. Giroux."_ It was Yvonne, calling for the second day in a row. Anne couldn't say she was terribly fond of the girl, but Amanda didn't make friends easily, and her odd choice of fashion was the only thing that really stood out about her, so she decided to keep her opinions to herself. _"Is Amanda there?"_

"She's helping Mr. Perkins again today, but—"

_"Oh come on, she's hanging out with that baldy again?! Doesn't she know it's summer?! I'm bored out of my mind here—"_

"Yvonne, calm down!" Anne snapped. "Listen, Amanda said she'd call when she's done at the job."

_"Oh. I see," _Yvonne said, calming herself. _"Um, sorry about getting angry. Uh, did she say when she'd be done?"_

"No, but I'm sure she'll call this afternoon."

_"This afternoon… right, okay."_

There was a _click_ as Yvonne hung up without so much as a goodbye. Mrs. Giroux made a face at the abrupt end of the call. _Honestly, what's eating that girl?_

* * *

"Amanda—"

"This isn't what I picked out!"

"I know, but—"

"It's _ugly!_ I mean, not just ugly. _Hideous!_ Why, if Mimi Tachikawa were here, she'd tear this thing apart!"

_"Amanda!"_ Mr. Perkins shouted, causing her to stop complaining for the moment. "Look, I know this ain't what ya had in mind, but give me a chance to explain about it."

Amanda crossed her arms, sulking even as Penguinmon marveled at the suit before them.

The suit consisted of a gray nylon jumpsuit with reflective white stripes on the legs and sleeves. It had matching gray gloves and boots and a large belt with a few pouches for whatever knick-knacks one might carry, as well as a gray backpack strapped, appropriately, to the back. Most striking, however, was the cape and hood and, covering the mannequin's face, a gas mask with a protruding mouthpiece.

"This suit's your size, me dear," Mr. Perkins explained. "It's lightweight and you won't get too hot runnin' around in it. The belt and backpack will let ya keep yer tings with ya, including yer digivice, so ya won't have to carry it in yer pockets. The reflective strips will keep ya from gettin' hit by cars if ya need to go out at night. The mask will hide yer face, plus it should filter poison or toxic gas if ya encounter a digimon that attacks with 'em. The hood can help keep ya dry if it rains, though you'll have to either get a haircut or clip yer hair back to hide it, and the cape can hide yer body and gadgets and tings, makin' it easier to get the drop on any monsters ya fight."

Amanda nodded, understanding the logic, but she didn't look happy. "And what was wrong with the stuff I picked out?" she asked.

Mr. Perkins sighed. "Look, Amanda, I know ya had yer heart set on bein' like yer anime heroes and all," he said, "but that isn't gonna work. The instant ya go outside, everyone's gonna know who you are."

"Nobody figured out who Sailor Moon was!"

"And I can't figure out why, to be honest," he replied. "She looks the same after she transforms, even if she wears different clothes!"

"Well, couldn't it have been more colorful, like Card Captor Sakura's outfits?"

"Me dear, the idea is fer _Frigimon_ to hold the monster's attention. A colorful costume would make you easier to notice."

"Well couldn't you have just left the goggles?!" she demanded.

"They're in there, actually," he said. "I used the lenses to replace the eye holes in the gas mask. Now you can see and nobody will be able to see yer eyes."

"The goggles could have hidden my identity too, you know!"

"Unless yer name's Clark Kent, no glasses or goggles in the world are gonna work fer a disguise!" he said, getting exasperated.

"Well, didn't you do _anything_ to at least make it… _cool?"_ she asked.

"One ting, yeah," he said, turning the mannequin around. Patched onto the back of the cape was a large, red, five-pointed star.

"Oh, well, that's changes everything," Amanda said sarcastically.

"Just try it on," Mr. Perkins said.

"Fine," she grumbled, carrying the items to the bathroom. She grumbled from inside the room as she dressed, emerging with a complete lack of enthusiasm. Penguinmon had to admit, it was a good disguise; she didn't look like the same person on the slightest.

"Not too bad," he commented.

"Yep. That's a pretty good disguise," Mr. Perkins said.

"I got a look at myself in the mirror," grumbled. "I look like a hornet or a member of a hazardous materials team or something."

"Oh, the voice, I almost forgot," Mr. Perkins said. He reached under the mask and flipped an unseen switch.

Amanda cocked her head to the side and in a completely different voice asked, "What did that do?"

Both Penguinmon and Amanda gave such a start that Mr. Perkins couldn't help himself from laughing. The voice was deeper, electronic and raspy. It had an odd, almost creepy echo and crackled as though she was speaking through a walkie-talkie or a CB radio.

"Okay, what the heck is this?!" she demanded before flipping the switch again.

"It's a voice modulator. I installed it into the mouthpiece of the gas mask."

"Why?" she demanded in her normal voice.

"It's a small town, Amanda," he said. "Even if nobody can tell it's you under there, the instant you say sometin', you run the risk that someone'll know who you are."

"Ugh, this isn't fair!" she said, and suddenly the emotion in her voice was more apparent, even though her face wasn't visible.

"What's the problem, me dear?" he asked soothingly. "I know it ain't quite what ya had in mind, but—"

"Don't you get it? This was my chance to be… you know, glamorous! No, not glamorous. _Cool._" She sighed deeply, adding softly, "I thought I'd finally get to be cool."

Penguinmon nuzzled her leg gently. "Don't say that, Amanda," he said. "I think you look pretty cool. Maybe not like the girls in those comics, but you still look kinda like a superhero. Like that Batmon guy."

"Bat_man_," she said, correcting him with a laugh. "I… I guess that's true." She flipped the switch and turned the voice back on, saying "I am vengeance. I am the night. I am _Batman!__" _in a dark, raspy voice.

"Glad yer comin' to terms with it," Mr. Perkins said. "Okay, ya better get it all folded. I made it so it can fit inside the backpack. You can change in and out of that ting in a minute or two if ya hurry."

"Well, that's convenient," Penguinmon remarked, trying his best to back up Mr. Perkins, seeing that it was, in fact, a pretty good costume.

"I guess you're right," Amanda rumbled. "Ooh, but hey… now I need a cool superhero name. How about… Pretty Mandy Digidestined!" she declared in her decidedly un-feminine, electronic voice, pointing a finger dramatically at some unseen star.

Penguinmon and Mr. Perkins both broke out laughing. "Oh jeez, me dear," Mr. Perkins managed to say between gasps. "That ain't gonna work."

"For more than one reason!" Penguinmon added.

"Ah, I almost forgot," Mr. Perkins said. "I got one more surprise fer ya." He motioned for her to follow. Still uneasy on his injured leg, he took her down the stairs and out the back way of the store. "This ought to help ya get around a little quicker."

Amanda may not have been all that happy with the new costume, but this was another matter entirely. She took off the mask to get a better look at it.

"A new bike!" she exclaimed.

It was indeed a new bike. It was simple, silver in color, and came with a large wire basket in the front. It also had a headlight and a large case strapped to the grill on the back. It wasn't anything too special, but the idea of using a bike to get around town faster to fend off digimon was a great idea, so much so that she could have smacked herself for not coming up with it herself.

"The basket on the front can carry the pack, and Penguinmon can ride in the case on the back."

"Oh, sure, put me in a box. I might as well be back in a backpack—"

"Oh, I made a few adjustments, me son," he said, popping open the lid and showing Penguinmon the inside. "I put in a few eyeholes so ya can see, plus I put a cushion on the bottom so ya won't be too uncomfortable. Plus I put a latch on the top, but it can be popped open from inside, so ya won't get stuck."

"Heeey," Penguinmon said, "this is pretty nice!"

"It sure is!" Amanda agreed. She ran over and hugged Mr. Perkins, much to his surprise. "Thanks so much, Mr. Perkins! I'm sorry I got upset about the new costume, but it really is a great idea. And this bike is going to help a lot!"

"Aw, you're welcome, dear," he said.

"Can I take it for a spin?" she asked.

"Sure, but remember to keep it hidden if ya have to stop and change," he said. "If someone can identify the bike, it ruins the whole ting!"

"Good thinking," she said. "Okay, Penguinmon, I'll change back and then let's go on patrol!"

"Yeah! Wait, patrol?!"

* * *

A short time later, Amanda was on the bike, speeding her way through town, Penguinmon in the case on the back. The stores and shops and other landmarks of the town were being passed in no time, and Amanda couldn't keep the smile from her face. She felt the wind on her face as it whipped through her hair and even gave a holler as she rounded a sharp corner with ease. It had been a long time since she'd had her own bike and she was surprised at how much she'd missed it. Even though she'd long since given up asking for things like bikes in favor of computers and movies, right now she much preferred the feel of zooming through the streets to sitting at home typing on a keyboard. She felt like a real hero on a motorcycle, even though there was no motor on the bike, and the exhilaration of having a whole new costume and arsenal in her fight as a Digidestined was a tremendous feeling. She felt like she could take on the world.

"Psst, Amanda," Penguinmon whispered. "Whoa, not so fast on those corners!"

"Sorry, Penguinmon," she said, once she was sure nobody on the streets was paying attention. "What is it?"

"Are we really patrolling? This just seems like a joyride!"

"Er… sure!" she said. She slowed her bike as they reached the outskirts of town and carefully unzipped a side pocket on the backpack in her basket. She removed the Digimon Detector and flicked it on. "Let's see, this… uh oh."

"What?" he asked, dread already building in his gut.

"I'm getting a signal." She took a deep breath, then gave a determined look. "Okay, Penguinmon, time to make our debut!"

* * *

It was lunchtime, which explained why Buckland's Burgers, an old-fashioned burger joint on Roxanne's western outskirts, was so busy. It was filled mostly with teenagers on summer break, along with many others who were just there to grab a quick lunch. The burgers and fries they served were greasy, but fresh and tasty. The chefs and waitresses all wore old-fashioned uniforms, evoking a 1950s malt shop feel that was punctuated by the jukebox in the corner.

"Three moo cows and a rabbit!" one waitress called to the back as she put up an order. "Hey, table five's still wanting those rings, Larry!"

"Comin' up!" called the chef, Larry, from the back. The man worked smoothly, with he and his staff flipping burgers, cutting lettuce and tomatoes, and dropping French fries with ease. "Dougie, dumpster?"

"On it, boss!" said one worker, carrying a full trash bag to the back door. He exited the back and then reappeared a moment later, his face white and his eyes full of terror.

"Dougie? What the heck, what's wrong with you?"

"Th-there's something out there!" he stammered. "A d-d-d…"

Larry grumbled as he was pulled away from his station to see what the kid was so scared of. He and another fry cook went to the door and opened it. They looked to the corner and saw the dumpster… and a gigantic, reddish Tyrannosaurus digging through it.

They all gawked in horror. The thing looked like something out of Jurassic Park and it made low guttural noises of frustration and disgust as it lifted out trash bag after trash bag, tearing them open to view the inside contents. But then the most astonishing thing of all happened: it _spoke_.

"Nothing in there either," Tyrannomon growled. "I need something fresh." Then, for the first time, saw the humans staring at him. He grinned. "Well, _you_ look fresh. _Blaze Blaster!"_

They all ducked inside as Tyrannomon breathed a stream of fire at them. Though the attack missed and they were all safe inside, Tyrannomon wasn't about to let them get away. He had an idea: since they would probably try to leave through the front of the building, he used his massive tail to flip the dumpster and block the backdoor. Then he sprinted around toward the front.

Inside, Larry and the others rushed from the kitchen to the front of the restaurant. "Everyone, get out!" he shouted, prompting confusion from the patrons. "There's a dinosaur outside!"

This, of course, sounded much sillier when spoken aloud, which is why everyone in the restaurant began to laugh. That ended as soon as the gigantic Tyrannosaurus smashed his head through the front window with a mighty roar. Then the laughs turned to shrieks of terror.

"I smell something delicious," Tyrannomon said. "What is it?" he demanded.

One of the braver patrons who was still holding a burger stepped forward. "Um… you… want to try?"

Tyrannomon smiled and opened his massive jaws, drawing more screams from the others. The man with the burger carefully tossed the burger and Tyrannomon snapped it up, devouring it in seconds.

"Mmm! Hey, not bad! Humans have good taste!"

The others looked to each other, thinking that perhaps this beast could be persuaded to leave with a few burgers.

"But… not filling enough," Tyrannomon continued. "I'll need something larger. You humans ought to do the trick!"

He laughed as the people screamed and ran for the back. But they found the dumpster blocking the door and realized Tyrannomon had them trapped as he began to tear the roof off the restaurant. It might take a little time, but soon he'd have a massive meal. Then he heard a voice shouting from behind him.

"Hey! Over here, ugly!"

He raised his head and snarled at whoever dared to interrupt him.

* * *

**A few moments earlier…**

"Oh no," Amanda said, seeing Tyrannomon smashing up the restaurant. "He's attacking Buckland's Burgers! Darn it, they have great poutine!"

"I'm not sure what that is," Penguinmon said climbing out of the back case as they parked the bike to the side of the parking lot, "but we need to take him down. Quick, get changed!"

"Same to you," she said with a sly grin, holding out her digivice.

"No problem. _Penguinmon digivolve to… Frigimon!"_

In short order, Amanda was in her new suit and she also pulled out something else that Frigimon hadn't seen before.

* * *

**Giroux Gadget #3: The Banstick Mark II**

Similar to the original Banstick, this device is a modified version which has a spring-loaded, telescopic arm. The transmitting device for the reversal of dimensional tunneling energy has also been made smaller and the internal parts have been made with lighter material. This means that it is easier to conceal and carry.

Amanda's Notes: "I built this on Sunday after Mr. Perkins first called to invite me to Toronto. The original Banstick was great, but by sawing it in half and adding a spring mechanism, I can compact it like a telescope and carry it in my backpack. Now that I have a new costume and a bike, this will make it easier than ever to get around town with my gear and not be noticed!"

* * *

"Nice!" Frigimon said.

"Yeah, hopefully it works as well as the original," she said, flipping on her voice modulator.

"Wait, you haven't tested it?!"

"Well I didn't exactly have any digimon to test it on and I couldn't test it on you, now, could I?"

"Right, whatever, let's do this!"

The two of them ran over to just behind Tyrannomon. Frigimon was about to get the beast's attention when Amanda beat him to it.

"Hey! Over here, ugly!" she shouted.

Tyrannomon turned his head with a snarl and glared at the pair of them. "Who the heck are you two supposed to be?"

"I am a Digidestined and this is my partner, Frigimon!" Amanda yelled.

"That's right," Frigimon said. "We're—"

"Where monsters rampage, I'm there to take them down! I am the great defender of love and justice! This hand of mine is burning red! Now in the name of—"

"Can we dispense with the speeches and get on with it?!" Frigimon yelled.

"Hmph. Fine," Amanda said. "Go get him, Frigimon!"

"Right Ama— Partner!" he said.

_Good thinking, Frigimon,_ she thought to herself. _Calling me by my real name might give this all away!_

"Okay, Tyrannomon, leave the humans alone or you'll be sorry!"

"Ha!" Tyrannomon laughed. "What're you going to do about it?"

"_Snowball Attack!"_ he shouted, firing a snowball at him. The attack hit and smacked Tyrannomon hard in the face, but it didn't seem to do any real damage. That wasn't surprising considering how large and muscular Tyrannomon looked. But now he looked angry.

"Okay, Mr. Snowman, you just made a big mistake," he growled. _"Blaze Blast!"_

The fiery attack sent a cloud of flame out at the two of them. Amanda ran for cover, but Frigimon wasn't so lucky. The blast of heat made him stagger back. He felt his cold exterior begin to melt under the heat and water poured from his body. He yelled in pain as he struggled to his feet.

"Frigimon!" Amanda shouted. "Are you okay?!"

"It hurts… fire-based attacks…"

"Yeah, that wasn't too smart," Tyrannomon said. "And that was just one attack! Care to try another? _Blaze Blast!"_

This time Frigimon was ready and sprang back. Though it was hard to move in the crowded parking lot, he managed to step back out of the range of the blast. The heat was still intense, but he didn't receive any damage from it.

_Hey, that attack dissipates after half a dozen meters or so,_ Amanda thought. _Maybe…_

"Frigimon! Keep him out of range of that attack! Use projectiles and wear him down!"

"Got it!" Frigimon called back. "All right, take this! _Snowball Fight!"_

This attack was not one massive snowball, but a whole flurry of smaller ones. Each one pelted the large dinosaur, stinging his leathery hide as he stepped back.

"That's good, keep it up!"

But this strategy also had a weakness. Tyrannomon ignored the painful snowballs and ducked down, suddenly charging at his foe. _"Wild Buster!"_

This attack was little more than a running headbutt, but Tyrannomon barreled at Frigimon and rammed him like a freight train, causing him to go sailing back and smashing several cars as he went.

"Frigimon!" Amanda yelled, rushing after the two combatants, even while trying to maintain cover behind the cars. _I don't believe it. He just charged right at him, headfirst! He wasn't even looking up, but he was so fast that…wait a minute…_

"Frigimon, listen!" she said, getting as close as she could to her partner.

"Am—Partner?" he said, standing up woozily.

"Listen,I have a plan," she said, trying not to let Tyrannomon hear her. "Lure him over to the sign and pelt him with more snowballs. Get him to do that again!"

"What the… how's that going to work? He's just going to charge straight at me…" Then he saw what she meant and got what she was thinking. It wasn't very elegant, but it would do the job. As Tyrannomon approached, Frigimon leaped and bounded over the cars and stood by the tall, metal sign for Buckland's Burgers. At night, the sign at the top of the tall pole lit up and could be seen for miles in any direction. He put his back to it and beckoned Tyrannomon with one snowy finger, daring him to follow.

"Come on you big red jerk! _Snowball Fight!"_

While this fight was going on, the patrons of Buckland's Burgers began to take advantage of the distraction that Amanda and Frigimon created and escaped the restaurant. However, some of them stayed behind, and a select few of them even had cameras. As this was the year 2000, they did not yet have cell phones with digital cameras or video cameras, but just the same, they managed to capture some key moments of the fight.

"Oh wow," said one of them. "Wait 'til the local news sees this!"

"Gragh!" Tyrannomon growled in frustration, reeling from the constant barrage of snowballs. "You stupid pile of snow! These things just tickle! I'm gonna melt you into a puddle!"

"Yeah, well, first you have to come over here!" Frigimon shouted back.

"If that's how you want it," Tyrannomon laughed, putting his head down again. _"Wild Buster!"_

Frigimon saw the massive dinosaur rushing at him and braced himself. If he moved too soon, Tyrannomon would probably see what he had planned. Too late and he'd simply take the full force of the attack, and another blow like that would probably make him de-digivolve.

_Come on… just gotta time it…_

Tyrannomon was almost upon him with Frigimon spun to the side, letting Tyrannomon crash headfirst into the tall sign's pole. The metal let out a reverberating gong-like sound and Tyrannomon staggered back. The sign was dented and began to creak, but it didn't actually fall.

_Okay, time to improvise!_ he thought. _"Subzero Ice Punch!"_ he shouted, hitting the dented pole. Once it froze over, Frigimon simply gave it a swift roundhouse kick, causing the weakened structure to shatter and fall forward like a massive tree.

"What the… whoa!" Tyrannomon yelped when he saw the sign coming down on him. He struggled to his feet and tried to get out of the way, but he was far too disoriented to get away in time and the huge sign smashed down onto him, pinning him to the ground. Still, he was quite strong and began to strain to get back up.

"Frigimon, freeze him before he gets up!" Amanda called.

"Not a problem! _Subzero Ice Punch!"_ He pounded his fist directly into Tyrannomon's head, freezing him and the sign to the ground, immobilizing him.

"Sorry, Tyrannomon," Amanda said, pulling out the new Banstick, undoing a catch and letting it extend, "but the people of Roxanne are off the menu." She jammed the end of the Banstick into his nose and flicked it on. A few moments later, the familiar flash and puff of smoke was seen and he was gone, sent back to the Digital World.

She was about to leave when she heard several of the patrons who hadn't run away cheer and begin to clap for her.

"Frigimon… are they… are they clapping for us?"

"Yeah, but I think—"

"We're heroes! We did it, we're finally—"

"_Partner,"_ he hissed. "I hear the police coming. Now let's get out of here!"

"Oh. Right!" she said, remembering herself. She let Frigimon hoist her onto his shoulder and the two dashed into the nearby woods. Once they were out of sight, he de-digivolved and she changed back into her regular clothes. From their hiding spot in the woods, they managed to get all their things in the backpack and onto the bike just as the police arrived.

"Wow," Amanda breathed. "We really did it! And according to my watch, that all took less than five minutes!"

"That's it?" Penguinmon asked from his hiding place in the bicycle's back case. "That really was quick. Let's hope all our fights are over that fast."

"Yeah, I— aw, darn it!"

"What now?"

"I didn't get a chance to tell them my superhero name!"

"Are you serious?"

"Yes, of course I am! How are they supposed to call for help?! Maybe I should make a signal light for the police or maybe send them a note at least…"

Penguinmon rolled his eyes, but smiled in spite of himself. "Oh boy…"

"Laugh all you want," Amanda said. "This day _rocked!_ Let's get back and tell Mr. Perkins!"

* * *

In a darkened room, an 11-year-old goth girl drummed her fingers on the table as she stared at her phone. She glanced over at the clock for the fifth time in the last half hour and saw it was almost five o'clock.

_You think you're something, Amanda?_ Yvonne thought to herself. _You must think that's pretty funny, just making me wait all this time so you can play with your little gadgets with that baldy. Well, who needs you! I can do just fine by myself!_

She waited a little longer, still staring at the phone, before she finally screeched "Call me! It's been two days, don't you ignore me!"

The phone was silent. She looked back at her clock and saw that it was five o'clock. The whole afternoon went by and still no Amanda. Yvonne clenched her fist, her long nails digging into the palm of her hand almost hard enough to draw blood.

"You _bitch."_

* * *

Amanda finally wandered in a little after five o'clock. She'd spent the rest of the afternoon with Mr. Perkins working on some new ideas they had about the strange program on the town's computers, but ultimately hadn't made a lot of progress. She also stopped by the grocery store and finally rewarded Penguinmon with the fresh salmon she'd promised him. He ate so much she was surprised the chubby little bird fit back inside the bike's case.

"Hi everyone, I'm home!" she called.

"Amanda? Oh thank god, you're home!" Mrs. Giroux exclaimed.

"Huh? What is it, I wasn't gone long," she said, looking a bit confused.

"You were gone for hours!"

"Amanda," her father said, stepping forward. "Listen to me. Were you at Buckland's Burgers today?"

Amanda's heart skipped a beat. _Oh crap, oh _Mon Dieu_ they found out! This is it, my days of being a Digidestined are over! How could they… wait, no, they couldn't possibly… I better lie about it._

"No," she said, managing to look confused. "I spent the day with Mr. Perkins."

"Then why didn't either of you answer the phone when we called?"

_Ah,_ she thought, recalling all the times the phone had rung and they'd simply ignored it to discuss their plans.

"We got caught up in some work," she replied truthfully. "Why, what happened?"

"How could you not know, it's the talk of the town!" her mother cried.

"Amanda," her father said. "It's… people are saying a digimon attacked Buckland's Burgers today."

"What?! No way!" she cried. _I sure hope that sounded convincing enough._

"Yes, and we were worried you had heard and gone to investigate. In fact, there's… well, some people are wondering if that incident with the 'bear' wasn't just a digimon as well. Maybe even the _same _digimon."

Amanda managed to stop herself from correcting her father and only nodded. "Wow… imagine that. Digimon right here in our town!"

"Yes, well… I know you're excited, but please be careful."

"Your father and I were just worried," her mother said, bending down and hugging her tightly.

"Yes," her father said, joining in the hug. "Just be careful and don't let your curiosity get the best of you."

"Mama, Papa…" she said, feeling a mixture of warm sentiment at this display of concern and guilt at her deception.

"Hey, what's everyone hugging for?" Philipe said as he walked into the room. "Come on, the news about the monster's on TV!"

"Wait, the news?" Amanda asked uncertainly.

A few minutes later, the whole family was gathered around the TV.

_"Our top news story today," _the male news anchor was saying, _"as many of Roxanne's citizens know, a strange creature attacked Buckland's Burgers today just after starting lunch service at noon. Most shocking of all, many eyewitnesses said the creature could talk."_

The screen shifted to show interviews with many of the customers, each giving a short soundbite about what they had seen.

_"It was tall and red!"_

_ "It had like, these green spines and stuff."_

_ "Look, I swear, man… this thing breathed fire."_

_ "I know it sounds crazy, right? But the thing talked. I gave it a burger, but then it said it wanted something else to eat and it started tearing the place up!"_

The scene shifted to the smashed remains of Buckland's Burgers, including the sign that Frigimon had used to disable the rampaging foe.

"Oh my goodness," Mrs. Giroux breathed. "Wesley, can you believe it? We took the kids there to eat just a few weeks ago!"

"Yeah, poor Larry. But I think he's got insurance…"

The news reporter went on, _"But the most shocking thing of all is that eyewitnesses claim that not one, but __**two**__ creatures were seen at the site of the attack. The first one being the dinosaur-like creature, but the second was described as looking like a snowman. And, on top of that, the snowman was accompanied by a human partner."_

Amanda could barely contain her excitement. _Oh my gosh, they're talking about Frigimon and me! This is so cool!_

_"In fact, several eyewitnesses were able to take pictures of the attack—"_

_ Oh crap!_ Amanda thought. _They got me on film?! What if they figure out who I am? What do I do?_

_"However, the identity of the human accompanying the creature remains a mystery for now."_

_Whew,_ she thought. _That's a relief._

The pictures taken flashed on the screen while the reporter spoke. They showed a few blurry shots of Tyrannomon, then some of him fighting Frigimon, and then finally a few shots of her standing by in her costume, finally showing one of her atop Frigimon's shoulder, getting a clear shot of the star on her back.

_"Roxanne City Police have no official comment, but these pictures bear a striking resemblance to the creatures seen last summer during the infamous 'Digimon Incident.' They have, however, asked citizens of Roxanne to come forward with information if they know the identity of the human in this picture. Due to the silver appearance of the person's clothing and the red star on their back, locals have already taken to calling this mysterious vigilante '__**The Silver Star**__.'"_

Amanda couldn't keep herself from making a face. _The Silver Star? That's so lame. Ugh, the star's not even silver, it's red! Oh well, it could be worse…_

The reporter wrapped up her report. _"Whoever the Silver Star is, it seems clear that the snow creature responds to his commands, and the citizens of Roxanne at least owe a measure of gratitude to this mysterious boy."_

Amanda froze. She blinked. Her face began to turn red and it was a very good thing that her family was watching the TV as she had herself a miniature outburst.

_Did they… did she… **BOY?!**_

* * *

**To be continued…**

_Next time: Gender confusion and a new identity to keep secret may add to Amanda's problems. But as more digimon arrive and a mysterious entity becomes involved, the threat to the town looms greater than ever…_

_*Note: this is a real problem Dell computers (and others) had back in 2000, and apparently still have in 2013. Consider this a free tip from your friendly neighborhood fanfic author!_


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